Via:         UK.AC.EX.CEN; 21 DEC 92 10:30:03 GMT
X-Mailer:    ELM [version 2.3 PL0]
Date:         Mon, 21 Dec 92 10:30:18 GMT
From:         M.E.Bennun@CEN.EX.AC.UK
Subject:      Re: Running XPL programs
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene
              18,92 6:08 pm

Cora A. Diamond (aka Tony Woozley) wrote........
>
>
> You can have your XPL programs in any subdirectory you want and set a
> default path for them.  I have all mine (both for NB4 and for NB3) in a
> subdirectory of NB3, and run them from NB4 just by using the
> filename.  As an example: when in the NB4 subdirectory I want
> to run a progranm called AMPERSAN.RUN, using the full path it would
> be (slashes reversed here): 'run c:/nb/prgrm/ampersan.run'.  But all
> I have to enter is 'run ampersan.run'.  I don't remember how I set
> it up (must have been via one of those long threads through the menu),
> but the result is a line in NBCUSTOM.SET, which reads
> NBIP=C:/NB/PRGRM/
>
>

I think that Tony is assuming we all know more than we actually do.
The line he has added to nbcustom.set clearly does the trick, but how
does he know how to add it? Can we have details on the syntax? I have
been wondering about this, because it may explain that a "deprovement"
I'd feared is no such thing. Is access to pgms and to other features
such as boilerplate and spellers etc related?

Paths in nbcustom.set are clearly be important. /nb4/boiler/s set a
single path for files with the extension .bpl in a single
subdirectory, as I for one learned last week; but I had begun to think
that ALL boilerplate files had to be in the same subdirectory. It
seems to follow from what Tony says that it is in fact possible to
create further sub-directories each with its own path in
nbcustom.set(I would like to separate domestic addresses from bits of
text for student handouts, for example); but how does one get at them
via menus? Is it possible to create paths at will with the syntax
NB?P=C:/NB4/subdirectory/ where ? and "subdirectory" are related??

And no, I don't mean through the use of merge, as someone has asked.
Boilerplate files doubtless use merge behind the scenes, but it's the
menu-ed access and the list of files (which vaguely resembles a
directory but is not) which is the characteristic which made v. 3 so
useful. There, if you look at the manual, you'll see that all files
with the same extension, the last character of which was a hyphen, could
be grouped in one subdirectory and would be accessible to select from
a list. Very useful; but now, is everything to be in \nb4\boiler\ and
to have .bpl - and nothing else? How better than to call this a
deprovement - and I hope I'm wrong.

And Tony Woozley seems to hint that I might be?

Incidentally, in the "wouldn't it be nice department"..... files can be
displayed in date order in directories - I like this and use it; but
in \nb4\boiler\ they then come up thusly.... but addresses are more
logically sorted alphabetically..... could somebody suggest to NBI
that this would be a neat touch to a useful feature?


 ---------------
Mervyn E. Bennun, Law Department, University of Exeter
Phone: (+44) (0) 392 263 161
Postal Address: Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4RJ, Devon, U.K.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU