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- Path: cs.uwa.edu.au!jasonb
- From: jasonb@cs.uwa.edu.au (Jason S Birch)
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
- Subject: Re: MUI 3.2
- Date: 16 Feb 96 16:47:38 GMT
- Organization: The University of Western Australia
- Message-ID: <jasonb.824489258@cs.uwa.edu.au>
- References: <jasonb.824024887@cs.uwa.edu.au> <68771502@0humpty.tomate.tng.oche.de>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: decadence.cs.uwa.oz.au
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-
- humpty@TOMATE.TNG.OCHE.DE (Andreas Mixich) writes:
- >So do this for *your* system. NEV:MUI is 277kb on my sys after removing a
- >lot of unused progs' preferences. I think ENV is misused too much. For
- >every crap setting, that I need one time in two weeks env is used. $TZ,
- >$USER, $AUTHOR, $HOME, $HOST, $DOMAIN,LHAOPTS,ENV:SC/ etc. all these BELONG
- >TO ENV: !!!
-
- >But why a 50kilo ToolManager.prefs ? Why a ForcIcon prefs which is altered
- >maximum once a day. Why the icons for CED ? Or the prefs for phonebill,
- >which I use once a month or even less ? Why can Nico Francois save the
- >ToolsDaemon Prefs in S: without slowing down the whole process ? I change
- >this sometimes daily. You even do not notice that it is in S: Yes, at the
- >beginning I was searching for the prefs in env:....
-
- Surely all this supports my idea for having a slight modification to
- the way env-vars work so we don't need to keep a copy in env: *and*
- envarc:, as opposed to changing MUI alone? Altering MUI would mean
- only MUI programs benefit. If getenv followed multiple assigns, *all*
- programs would benefit, including that 50k TM prefs file (which,
- incidentally, is nearly as big as my entire env:mui directory).
-
- >If you like ENV that much: Okay, lets store TERM prefs and its phonebook
- >there, and yes, CEDDEFAULTS belongs there anyway, and perhaps UMS.config
- >and the prefs for AmiIRC, AmiTCP (and all belonging tools) and so on and
- >on. Yeah, let's expand this idea and let your editor put its auto-bakup in
- >env: also so you do not here every 5 minutes your hard disk scratching.
-
- env: is for storing your environment. Hence the name. Anything that
- constitutes part of your environment should go there (and will make
- things much easier if AmigaOS ever goes multiuser). If *only*
- preferences that had been changed since the last save and "Use"'d were
- stored in env:, it would make this a much nicer solution. After all,
- the config files have to be stored *somewhere*.
-
- >But, put ENV: into SD0: before or RAD: ;-))
-
- Ah, that would be a big mistake. Unlike RAM:, SD0: and RAD: both use
- normal filesystems - your 5 byte TZ variable is probably taking up 512
- bytes alone on your system.
-
- >If I would list my ENV: now it would conatin more than a hundred lines from
- >which at least 70 are not needed to be in env. In env only things should be
- >like variables, especially when they shall be used from scripts as well or
- >other programs. Mini-settings for _very_ time critical programs or so. But
- >not for *EVERYTHING*. This was a huge mistake of the Amiga designers not to
- >forbid explicitley usage of env: for everything that claims itself to be a
- >preferences-file. Okay, there is still the need for a difference between
- >USE and SAVE.
-
- Only keeping settings that have changed since the last save in env:
- solves this problem.
-
- >Why not leaving S: for scripts, make a dir SYS:Configs (some programs
- >follow this new way already) for saving of prefs or let it be
- >Sys:Prefs/Settings/Applications where you could have a drawer named USE and
- >one named SAVE.... And for things like window positions for GUI engines,
- >such as Triton or MUI, okay, let them use env:
-
- The more different places you allow for settings, the more difficult
- it becomes to set up a multiuser system.
-
- >> and for the system to be patched, just as I prefer OpenLibrary() to be
- >> altered so it looks in PROGDIR: as well as LIBS: and the current dir,
- >> rather than forcing all programs to look for libraries there
- >> themselves.
-
- >Yes, but I think ENV: is overused, absolutley overdosed....
-
- It wouldn't matter so much if it wasn't all copied into RAM: on each
- boot and left there. My idea again: when something looks for a file in
- env: that isn't there, the system automatically checks for it in
- envarc: as well. It could be implemented simply by adding envarc: to
- the env: assign, and making things like getenv work properly.
-
- >Ciao, Andreas
- >Internet: humpty@tomate.tng.oche.de
-
- --
- Jason S Birch ,-_|\ email: jasonb@cs.uwa.edu.au
- Department of Computer Science / \ Tel (work): +61 9 380 1840
- The University of Western Australia *_.-._/ Fax (work): +61 9 380 1089
- Nedlands W. Australia 6907 v Tel (home): +61 9 386 8630
-