Re: Further to XY under XP: finding config.xy

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "Patricia M. Godfrey"
 on Thu, 16 Aug 2007 17:03:36 -0400



> I always did it that way. Maybe a relic
> of the 2-floppy system, where one wanted to be sure the right
> disk was in the drive before logging on?

Ah, yes. I vaguely remember those days. Although I think I
always had a hard disk -- my first one was 10Mb -- plenty!
Anyway, it's a charming 1982 habit that has no current use.

> What I mean is, is it possible, and if so how, to set paths and
> change drives and dirs by writing batch or command or whatever
> files that XP can read, preparatory to launching a DOS
> application?

Not necessary!

> With Xy we do an endrun, because once Xy can find
> startup.int, it gets its own variables, so to speak.

Correct.

> But other
> apps want them set BEFORE the app launches. dBase for one has to
> read a file (config.db) that sets screen colors, designates the
> sql directory, and sets various other conditions.

I mostly use PostGres and other SQL databases, but I am quite
sure that dBase expects config.db to be in a particular
directory, and once launched in its own directory, dBase will
find its own config file in the expected place. You need to
understand the application. If it has its own DLLs, then the
location of dbase.exe should be the Working directory so that it
can find those DLLs (presumably, DLLs are in the same dir as the
EXE). Listen, Patricia: even though you CAN -- absolutely! --
use BATch files for the whole launch process, **just like in
9x**, in practice NOBODY does it that way in NT unless the
circumstances are very extraordinary, or you are not using a
Shortcut at all (for example, U2 frequently constructs BATch
files, and then executes them, sometimes directly and sometimes
using the START command, simply because no prior Shortcut exists
for what U2 wants to do -- the START command is able to provide,
on a DOS command line, most of what a Shortcut supplies --
indeed, the reason we insist that users install KMD.EXE is
because it offers NT power to 9x users, and primarily U2 taps
into that vastly greater NT power via the START command). I
have hundreds of apps on my computers, and no one of them
launches with a BATch file. Not one. They all use shortcuts,
because shortcuts give you a ton of additional control. Believe
me, all this is pie-simple. You'll get the hang of it.

> Well, thanks, but how was I to know? I mean WHERE
> does M$ tell people this stuff?

Lots of places. Examine the Properties of any Shortcut to an
EXE on your Desktop -- each one of them is an exemplar of how to
do it. It isn't illogical or unintuitive, is it? The command
that I suggested you put in the "Target" box of the shortcut is
the EXACT SAME COMMAND that you would use on a DOS command line.
But fully spelled out, i.e. fully-qualified d:\paths\ together
with correct arguments -- always!

> I've been
> having problems getting it to run right under W2K, and I'm
> thinking maybe XP won't let dbase execute those commands?

Nonsense. XP is incredibly capable. With these hints, you
should be able to figure it out.

Stay away from BATch files. They aren't needed.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
-----------------------------