Re: XY under XP: finding config.xy

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

Robert Holmgren wrote:
> You simply don't need any of that -- it's redundant. "Working
> directory" in the Shortcut gives you "CD /D D:\XY4" and launches
> Editor.
I think the problem here is the meaning of "Working Directory":
to me, that signifies the directory where the data files I'm
going to be creating and modifying reside--usually somewhere on
drive e:. NOT d:\xy4. But apparently the ONLY way you can CD and
log onto D:xy4 is by setting that as the Working Directory. I
renamed config.xy autoexec.xy and specified it in the Advanced
properties, but without that setting in Working Directory, Xy
comes up complaining that it "Cannot find Startup.int"--and of
course, not running it or loading any of the files called by it.
I also tried modifying the command field (as specified in
Robert's earlier posts; sorry I couldn't find them in my own
archive, though I knew you had addressed the issue) to read
%windir%\system32\command.com /c d:\xy4\editor.exe

Same thing: not logged on to D:, and not cd to d:\xy4.
I worked for the first at least 5 years, and I think it was
closer to 8, on a 2-floppy system. NO hard drive. You stuck the
DOS floppy in c: to boot. Then you took it out and stuck in a
program floppy to run that app. (I usually managed to squeeze
command.com on it, so that when you quit that app, you wouldn't
get that message about needing to reload command.com.) And you
had several data floppies, for different projects, which you
swapped in and out of B:. The experience burned deep into the
marrow of my bones careful habits of logging on to drives. (And
of keeping my data and DOS apps separate from Windows, when I was
eventually forced to run Redmond Rubbish. I do not own an
unpartitioned sole drive, and have finally gotten all but two
boxes at the office to have either two hard drives or separate
data partitions. Anything else seems to me INSANE.)
So it just seems absolutely necessary to me to start running a
DOS app (Windows-native ones I assume can find themselves in the
Registry) with
cd d:\appdir
d:
appname.exe
(cd /D d:\appdir wasn't possible under 9x, so it's taking me a
while to get used to it. Very useful though.)
But apparently that setting (under Advanced) for a specific
autoexec.xy is another one of those Desktop pif properties that
just doesn't take? And the only way I can get logged into d:\xy4
is to set it as the working directory or run a batchfile, which
BBB doesn't want me to do.

> The %PATH% environment variable in NT can be quite long
> -- if you need to add GS or GSView paths, add them (either
> globally or to you as a user, if it isn't your machine) via the
> System tab of Control Panel.
Aha! Hadn't heard about that one. OK, that makes sense, and on my
own boxes it would be good to have GSview always available.
> If you're only using GS View with XyWrite, U2 gets
> the path to GS from XyWWWeb.REG... so you don't
> need to tell the OpSys about it at all!
Well, back in Jan. of 05, I was having problems with Xy2pdf,
which were finally solved when I discovered that pstotxt WASN'T
referenced in the path. Did you maybe change XyWWWEb.reg AFTER that?
> > WHY is it so terrible to launch an app with a batchfile?
>
> Who said it was terrible? I use dozens of BATch files -- but
> not simply to launch apps, rather to perform complex actions (to
> count, to branch, to iterate).

I could have sworn you once or twice told us NOT to launch an app
with a batchfile. Obviously you use batchfiles; U2 calls them
repeatedly.
> there's a confusion here of CONFIG and AUTOEXEC -- the commands
> you offer belong in AUTOEXEC.XY --
Yes, I figured that out, after Michael reminded me. After all
those years of creating config.sys and autoexec.bat, you'd think
I'd remember which does what! But even when I put them in
autoexec.xy, they don't TAKE. They have no effect. Xy comes up
running from c:\desktop. Should I perhaps have named the file
autexxy.nt or something?
> > But then I have to
> > navigate through d:, then xy4, to get to the shortcut.
>
> Huh? You don't "navigate" to Shortcuts -- you just click on
> them!

Yes, but if the shortcut isn't on the desktop but only in
editor.exe's directory, you have to navigate there (in Explorer)
to click on it. But shortcuts apparently HAVE to be on the
desktop in XP.
> Most parts of an NT OpSys should be used the way Microsoft
> intended them to be used.

If we carried that too far, we'd never use any but Redmond-issue
apps (grin). So you're saying Microsoft doesn't approve of using
batchfiles to launch apps? But I still wonder why. Or was that
referring to config versus autoexec?

Anyway, thanks as always.
--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx