Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!decwrl!mejac!gryphon!keithd
From: keithd@gryphon.COM (Keith Doyle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Amiga Roadblocks to User Friendliness
Keywords: ASSIGNS
Message-ID: <10131@gryphon.COM>
Date: 30 Dec 88 10:16:32 GMT
References: <9407@gryphon.COM> <1410010@hpcvca.HP.COM> <9910@gryphon.COM> <10022@gryphon.COM> <3160@sugar.uu.net>
Reply-To: keithd@gryphon.COM (Keith Doyle)
Organization: Trailing Edge Technology, Redondo Beach, CA
Lines: 28

In article <3160@sugar.uu.net> peter@sugar.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
>If the program is a workbench program in the first place, what's iconx doing
>in the loop at all?

Many programs should work in either mode.  Running a program from the CLI 
can also allow command line parameters that can be useful in a BATCH mode.
I can imagine IconX running a batch script that moves all the images in 
a given directory through PixMate (assuming it had a CLI batch command
version, which it may in the future) massaging the images and perhaps
passing them to an ANIM compressor afterwards.  In addition, a program
may want to allow other programs to Execute() it to perform specific
functions, again using command line arguments.  If a program wants to
operate in both the CLI batch and the workbench click-me environments,
it might need to be able to figure out:

  1) where it is being run from (so it can access user data files kept in
     the "current" directory), and
  2) what directory it is kept in (so it can access program-related files).

I've yet to see a method where both 1 & 2 can be achieved whether or
not the program is run from the CLI, WorkBench, IconX, Execute() or 
LoadSeg/CreateProc.

#2 can be solved with a boot-Assign.  #1 can be solved from CLI, WorkBench
and perhaps LoadSeg/CreateProc, but not from IconX or Execute() in all cases.

Keith Doyle
keithd@gryphon.COM    gryphon!keithd     gryphon!keithd@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov