Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-sally!ut-emx!mybest!bigtex!james
From: james@bigtex.uucp (James Van Artsdalen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Setup Programs
Keywords: brief
Message-ID: <2245@bigtex.uucp>
Date: 30 May 88 07:42:19 GMT
References: <33336@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> <5854@pyr.gatech.EDU>
Reply-To: james@bigtex.UUCP (James Van Artsdalen)
Distribution: na
Organization: F.B.N. Software, Austin TX
Lines: 21
Posted: Mon May 30 02:42:19 1988

IN article <5854@pyr.gatech.EDU>, is813cs@pyr.UUCP (Cris Simpson) wrote:
[ extolling the virtues of the Brief setup program ]
> You can run setup anytime and just change what you want. 

> If what you change requires changes to config.sys or autoexec.bat, 
> it prompts you to decide what to do: Update the file, Show the changes,
> Write to another file, or abort the changes.    It even asks you what 
> to do with the respective .bak files!   

The thing I like about their setup program is that it looks in the
environment, autoexec.bat, config.sys and INITIALS.m (personalized macros
file) and parses each of them for your current configuration.  At the
end of the setup sequence when it writes the files, it modifies *only*
the thing necessary, and leaves everything else alone.  When
installing a new version of Brief, you don't have to tell it where
anything is (except which hard disk to install on) or what any current
configuration is: it figures that out for itself.  It takes some work to
parse the different file formats, but it's well worth it!
-- 
James R. Van Artsdalen   ...!ut-sally!utastro!bigtex!james   "Live Free or Die"
Home: 512-346-2444 Work: 328-0282; 110 Wild Basin Rd. Ste #230, Austin TX 78746