Re: XPL question: VA$DL

[Carl Distefano cld@xxxxxxxx]

Reply to note from "Patricia M. Godfrey"  Sat,
06 May 2006 14:45:19 -0400

Patricia:

> Can anyone explain what VA $DL is?

It identifies the currently loaded SETTINGS.DFL file -- but there's
a catch: the loaded file has got to be _named_ SETTINGS.DFL.
Otherwise, VA $DL returns "(none)".

In view of this behavior, if you have multiple settings files it's
advisable to make sure that the currently-loaded file is always
named SETTINGS.DFL. For example, if you have SETTINGS.1, SETTINGS.2
and SETTINGS.3 and you want to load SETTINGS.1, you'd issue two
commands:
 COPY/NV SETTINGS.1 SETTINGS.DFL
followed by
 LOAD SETTINGS.DFL

Furthermore, when you edit your settings, you need to edit the
master file (SETTINGS.1, .2 or .3), not SETTINGS.DFL; otherwise,
you'll lose the edits when you next overwrite SETTINGS.DFL with one
of the master files.

> when I command VA/NV $DL, I get "(none)" though SETTINGS.DFL is
> right in the same directory with EDITOR.exe, which is the
> currently logged drive and dir.

See above; either no settings file is loaded, or the loaded settings
file is not named SETTINGS.DFL. Check your STARTUP.INT, Patricia.
Did you perhaps, while testing or experimenting, comment out or edit
the line that loads SETTINGS.DFL, and then forget to undo the
change?

--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxx