Set Paths is a control panel file which maintains a list of up to five folders. Once Set Paths has been used, that list will be used as a search path any time a file open operation occurs. If the file is not found where the programmer told the system to look, the system will start searching your list of folders and will fail to find the file only if it is in none of them.
The main purpose of Set Paths is to help reduce System Folder clutter, most specifically System Folders filled with jillions of laser fonts. However, many other things that normally go into your System Folder cannot be placed anywhere else. It can also make life easier for developers who have source files, object files, compilers, linkers, and editors littered all over their disks.
Using Set Paths is simple. Bring up the Control Panel desk accessory and scroll down to and click on "Set Paths". There are three buttons, a check box, and a box which displays the current list of folder names.
The "Add…" button will add a new folder to the list. Clicking on it brings up an open dialog. Find the folder that you wish to add to the list and click on the "Select" button.
To delete folders from the list, click on their names (in the Control Panel window, not the Finder) and click on the "Delete" button.
When "Show icon during startup" is clicked, the Set Paths icon will show at the bottom of your screen when it loads during startup of your Mac.
Set Paths is totally transparent to the system. Once you've set your paths, you're running - no matter what application you happen to be using. And you can use Set Paths any time you'd like to change your search path list. If you want to turn it off, you'll have to take it out of your System Folder or use an INIT manager to disable it (and then restart your Macintosh).
When you use Set Paths to select a folder on another disk, you must keep in mind a few things. Internally, each folder is stored as a pair of numbers which refer to the disk and the folder on the disk. The disk is referred to by something called the "volume reference number". This number is a unique number for referring to a disk, but the numbers are only unique at any one point in time. Once a disk is forgotten by the Mac, (such as by throwing it in the trash in the Finder) the number is up for grabs again. Unless you are using a Mac without hard disk, your startup disk usually has the same number.
First, if you set a path to a folder on a disk other than your startup disk, and it is not online, the folder name in Set Paths will be replaced with "*Unmounted volume*". This is not a problem.
Second, if you throw this disk's icon away and then insert another disk, you might get a folder on the other disk instead. This is because each disk has a unique (and non-reused) ID number for every folder on the disk. However, different disks may have folders with the same ID number, and you'll unexpectedly get a folder from the wrong disk used instead. Even in this case, however, there probably won't be any problem. However, you might want to use a little caution with adding paths to folders on disks other than your startup disk.
Disclaimer: This control panel file uses completely undocumented technology. If Set Paths somehow messes up your hard disk or data files, I will not be responsible for any problems that arise as a result of the use of it. Always back up your hard disk. Have a nice day. Don't worry, be happy. But don't take this disclaimer to indicate that Set Paths is a completely unstable hard disk trasher. It's been working quite well for me in the few months that I've had a laser printer so far. The only known problem with it is that its File Manager patches can confuse the Now Utilities Startup Manager 3.0. (INIT loaders that can change the loading order without renaming files have to do some skanky stuff, and apparently their skank was a bit less stable than mine. If you really need to use Set Paths, get rid of Startup Manager and use something simpler like Apple's Extensions Manager instead.)
This Set Paths control panel module is based on a desk accessory done by Paul Snively a few years back. A long time ago I suggested to him the idea of making it into a control panel file, but got a neutral response. It wasn't until I had to keep opening somebody else's System Folder with over 350 laser font files in it (takes a long time even on a IIx!) that the idea came back to me. Thanks to Paul's work in his Set Paths desk accessory, I was able to use the extensively undocumented _SetPMSP call.
Unfortunately, the _SetPMSP mechanism is broken under System 7.0. So instead, version 1.1 patches the File Manager traps _Open, _OpenRF, _GetFInfo, and _SetFInfo. This seems to work fine with ATM 2.03, PageMaker, and the Apple Laserwriter driver, with one exception.
The exception is that LaserWriter 7.1.1 (and probably the other 7.x versions as well) will not download Type 3 fonts stored in the data fork of the font file unless they are in the System Folder or the Extensions folder. To check for this, use a file utility program such as DeskZap or Disktop to check if the font file has a data fork. If it does, you can not use it in a Set Paths folder. (You also can not keep laser font files in the Extensions folder when using Pagemaker 3.0 & the Aldus driver, but you probably already knew that.)
Bruce Tomlin
15801 Chase Hill Blvd. #109
San Antonio, TX 78256-1037
GEnie and America Online: BTomlin
Applelink: D4872
bruce@f555.n387.z1.fidonet.org@INTERNET#
Internet: D4872@applelink.apple.com
bruce@f555.n387.z1.fidonet.org
(Please send to the Fidonet address instead of the Applelink address)
Version 1.0b4:
• Control panel part got into an infinite loop when it tried to get the name of a folder that didn't exist any more. Now it says "* Missing folder *".
Version 1.0b5:
• Added code to prevent installing folders from unmounted volumes into the PMSP.
• Settings file is now kept in a "Preferences" folder in the System Folder.
Version 1.0b6:
• Fixed a bug in getting/saving settings which could confuse "init cdev". I was using HGetVol/HSetVol to save the current directory, but it's =not= the same as GetVol/SetVol.
• Put in support for the Folder Manager in System 7.
Version 1.1b1:
• Took out _SetPMSP and replaced it with a patch to _OpenRF. This patch will look for an attempt to open a resource file when ioVRefNum is either zero or equal to the low memory global BootDrive. This is a tail patch unless the "async" bit is set in the trap word. (If necessary, I can also make the patch work with _Open as well.) A Gestalt procedure has been installed (function code='sPth') to allow the path list to be changed without restarting. Because of this, System 6.0.4 or later is required. Also, the paths will not be active unless Set Paths was loaded at startup.
• Used the new version of ShowInit which supports more than one row of startup icons.
Version 1.1b2:
• Fixed a bug in the patch that could trash the error code from _OpenRF. This caused attempts to move fonts out of the 7.0 system file to fail with an error -1.
• Went ahead and added the patch for _Open as well.
Version 1.1b3:
• Patched _GetFileInfo and _SetFileInfo to support the search path. Fortunately, all Set Paths needed to work with ATM 2.03 was a search path for _GetFileInfo. I patched _SetFileInfo "just in case" something wanted to play with the attributes of a file using the PMSP. I could also have easily patched _Delete and _Rename, but I felt it was safer to keep the number of patches to a minimum.
Version 1.1b4:
• Removed the _Debugger trap when the option key was held down during startup. (oops!)
• Added info about the problem with Type 3 data fork fonts and the Apple LaserWriter driver to the documentation.
