NB Startup

[Michael Norman michael.norman@xxxxxxxx]

CORRECTION
*NBSTART.INT* in fact works; that is NB70b automatically invokes it on
startup. I tested it with one line: [BX ca NBTEST.NB Q2 ;*;].

You do not have to create a .pm startup file and start that from NB.INI.
I'd forgotten that *save as* in NB adds an .nb extension. Out of XY habit,
it never occurred to me to check. I should have tried to call NBSTART.NB.
in the startup file instead of NBSTART.
The rest of the report holds, for now. [BX dir Q2 ;*;] in the startup file
still produces only a blank screen and [BC dir XC] still produces the
beginnings of a directory in the command line box, not a directory listing
in the writing window.

Michael Norman

At 2/5/2004 09:54 PM -0500, Michael Norman wrote:
> Herewith a brief, basic report on trying to get started with NB70b. XY and
> NB may share the same engines, and the commands and functions may be
> similar, but I have to keep reminding myself it's a WIN app, and there's
> quite a bit of dissonance. (W98SE)
> As Robert has written here, the program does not automatically invoke a
> startup.int (perhaps 6.1.1 did; I don't remember). NB7 is controlled by
> nb.ini in NBWIN\USERS\DEFAULT. In that file there's a _[startup]_ section
> in which you can run routines/programs. NB comes with an NBSTART.INT file.
> The file is empty. Why it's included I can not say. I've experimented with
> it as a program file. I've also followed Robert's advice and created a
> NBSTART.PM and tried that as well. All this was done in XY. (I've long
> forgotten, nor can I find in the Customization Guide, the difference
> between NE and NEP. I used both for this work and it did not seem to
> matter. I've also forgotten how to create the blind execute BX and execute
> quit Q2 you need. I just copied what I had, but it would be good to know.)
> Whatever you call the STARTUP file, there *seem* to be some tasks it won't
> perform; i.e if you try to call a test file, [BX ca testnb Q2 ;*;] NB
> calls the file all right, but then it opens a persistent dialog asking
> whether you want to open a second copy of the same file. (I tried this
> using several different STARTUP files and using [BC ca testnb XC] and the
> results were the same.) It will not open a directory in the writing
> window. [BX dir Q2 ;*;] gives you a directory in the command line box. It
> will set files to sort in reverse order [BX order d,r Q2 ;*;], but this
> affects only the directory lists you call up on the command line, not in
> the file management dialog. I'm guessing NBSTARTUP is limited -- limited
> in the sense it will not do many of the things STARTUP can do in XY. Or
> perhaps I'm blind to some basic considerations and am making some very
> basic errors here.
> I haven't made up my mind whether I want to use NB's file management
> dialogs or to try to continue with directory lists, as we do in XY, but
> I'd like to have both options. I don't do a lot with my startup as it is
> -- set the default directory, load settings.dfl, U2, keyboard, a saveget
> and call up the directory -- and all of those things can be managed in
> NB's .dfl or nb.ini. one way or the other.
> As far as I can tell from the NB list, not many folks use NBSTART; Mary
> Bernard, of course, uses it and she was kind enough to send me a copy of
> her startup.  She does the following: sets error correction on (this on
> the advice of RH); makes her directories sort by reverse date; sets df
> nw=1 (with the command d nw=1); loads a program that overrides NB's search
> menu; and does a couple of other jobs (loading things mostly) I'm still
> trying to parse. Be useful to know what Robert does in his NBSTART.PM. and
> what he''s tried that does not work.
> I wanted to see how STARTUP worked - and what I was able to discover and
> understand of it -- before I loaded U2, which, apparently, you can do
> either directly in the nb.ini *[startup]* section or in a STARTUP file.
> Enough for the moment. Corrigenda appreciated.
>
> Michael Norman