Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!phri!marob!daveh
From: daveh@marob.MASA.COM (Dave Hammond)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Unix deficiencies/problems
Message-ID: <637@marob.MASA.COM>
Date: 8 May 89 22:08:32 GMT
References: <19472@adm.BRL.MIL>
Reply-To: daveh@marob.masa.com (Dave Hammond)
Organization: ESCC  New York City
Lines: 29

In article <19472@adm.BRL.MIL> Kemp@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL writes:
>Say there are a few of my friends' directories and files that are of
>general interest:
> /home/orion/jsmith/projectA/speech
> /home/magellan/tjones/lib/splib.a
>With logical names, I could define the first as "joe" and the second as
>"splib", and do things like:
> cd joe
> ls joe
> ar t splib
> cc myprog -lsplib
> as well as writing application programs that use them.  Environment
>variables won't work unless you rewrite all your applications AND ALL
>UNIX APPLICATIONS to do a getenv before every open (figure the odds!).

That's silly.  If you substitute environ vars for `joe' and `splib' in
the previous example, ie:

	cd $joe
	ls $joe
	ar t $splib
	cc myprog -l$splib

it is the shell which must expand `$joe' and `$splib', not your application.
Rest assured, the shell will do so.

--
Dave Hammond
daveh@marob.masa.com