Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!bellcore!texbell!tness1!sugar!peter
From: peter@sugar.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Amiga Roadblocks to User Friendliness
Message-ID: <3072@sugar.uu.net>
Date: 10 Dec 88 02:08:42 GMT
References: <9407@gryphon.COM>
Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston, TX
Lines: 40

In article <9407@gryphon.COM>, keithd@gryphon.COM (Keith Doyle) writes:
> 1. make sure commercial applications never need boot time configurations
> such as ASSIGN or PATH?  

This is a good one. It's easy enough to see if an assign hasn't been made
yet, and to make it. Dissect my "mounted" program to see how to scan
through the mountlist. Looking for assigns is as easy as looking for
volumes.

> 2. chase startup script chains looking for something typical and adding
> in the commands automatically after ultra-warning operator?

Nope.

> 3. warn user that the Amiga is inherently unfriendly to novice Hard Disk
> users who are unfamiliar with the CLI, so he'd better go out and buy a
> good book, or drag his system back into his dealer and let *him* install
> it?

Nope.

> 4. ???? (god I hope there's a 4. and maybe a 5. and 6.)

The expansion drawer is a good place to do some of this stuff. A little
complex, since there's hardly any system when this is run.

I like "1." best. Use "s:" as an /etc/rc type directory, and just create a
file that you can set up your environment with. When the program is run, it
looks for the file. If it doesn't exist, it asks questions and creates it.
This should be entirely safe. The last question can be "Are you booting from
a floppy and copying everything into RAM?"... if the answer is "yes", you
then ask them to insert their boot floppy in df0: and copy the configuration
file to df0:s. Simple. Easy. Always safe.

Many programs do this already.
-- 
		    Peter da Silva  `-_-'  peter@sugar.uu.net
		     Have you hugged  U  your wolf today?

	          Disclaimer: My typos are my own damn busines#!rne