Hello Deron,

I thought the other day that it would be cool if we could finally get
rid of the assign jungle in the Amiga version. A well-behaved program
shouldn't need more than one assign; in fact, it should (if possible)
use PROGDIR: and require no assign at all.

Best regards,
Daniel

Well, I wouldn't call 3 assigns a jungle , but I do know the softlogik
font will either have to be added to the fonts: folder, or added via that
assign. The other two are possible.

>Hello Deron,
>
>I thought the other day that it would be cool if we could finally get
>rid of the assign jungle in the Amiga version. A well-behaved program
>shouldn't need more than one assign; in fact, it should (if possible)
>use PROGDIR: and require no assign at all.
>
>Best regards,
>Daniel

Deron Kazmaier - support@grasshopperllc.com
Grasshopper LLC Publishing -http://www.grasshopperllc.com
PageStream DTP for Amiga, Linux, Macintosh, and Windows

PageStream Support wrote:

> Well, I wouldn't call 3 assigns a jungle , but I do know the softlogik
> font will either have to be added to the fonts: folder, or added via that
> assign. The other two are possible.

As far as I remember, PROGDIR:fonts is in the search path of OpenFont().
It should not be necessary with a special assign for this.

On 23/03/05, PageStream Support wrote:
>
> Well, I wouldn't call 3 assigns a jungle , but I do know the
> softlogik font will either have to be added to the fonts: folder, or
> added via that assign. The other two are possible.
>
>> Hello Deron,
>>
>> I thought the other day that it would be cool if we could finally get
>> rid of the assign jungle in the Amiga version. A well-behaved program
>> shouldn't need more than one assign; in fact, it should (if possible)
>> use PROGDIR: and require no assign at all.

I don't see anything wrong with the PGS assigns. They are not all that
complicated.

Regards
--
Don Cox
doncox@enterprise.net

Hi Don,

> I don't see anything wrong with the PGS assigns. They are not
> all that complicated.

Having three assigns for a single program is just not done on the
Amiga. Bad style. Unnecessary waste of system resources. Look for
example at Geek Gadgets, a huge collection of development tools: one
assign for the whole lot.

Regards,
Daniel

Don Cox wrote:

> >> I thought the other day that it would be cool if we could finally get
> >> rid of the assign jungle in the Amiga version. A well-behaved program
> >> shouldn't need more than one assign; in fact, it should (if possible)
> >> use PROGDIR: and require no assign at all.
>
> I don't see anything wrong with the PGS assigns. They are not all that
> complicated.

There's nothing wrong. But with the appearance of PROGDIR: (in OS2, if I
remember correctly), program assigns are sort of obsolete. Applications
should use PROGDIR: instead of some assign usually set in
's:user-startup'. The number of assigns should be as few as possible.
Only assigns should be the system-necessary ones as well as the assigns
the user himself wants. Unnecessary program assigns will only clutter
the file requesters and give the user a direct access to the program
directory, a direct access the user in general will have absolutely no
need of.

I miss my Amiga.

G'day PageStream Support,

On 23/03/2005, on the subject of "[PageStreamAmigaBeta] Re: Assigns in
V5", you spoke thus:

> Well, I wouldn't call 3 assigns a jungle , but I do know the
> softlogik font will either have to be added to the fonts: folder, or
> added via that assign. The other two are possible.

I suspect he means Pagestream:, Pagestream3: and Pagestream4:. I still
have all 3 assigns myself. There was that problem with early PgS4
versions that needed the "legacy" assigns here and there. Admittedly I
have not experimented recently by removing the old assigns.

Do we still need all three or have you found and replaced the old ones in
your code?

--
Steve Bowman - Sydney, Australia

"What's a philosopher ?" said Brutha.
"Someone who's bright enough to find a job with no heavy lifting,"
said a voice in his head.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)

Hello PageStream

I think he is pointed to the Pagestream3: Pagestream4: and maybe
another Pagestream5: assigns.

On 23-Mar-05, PageStream Support wrote:
>
> Well, I wouldn't call 3 assigns a jungle , but I do know the softlogik
> font will either have to be added to the fonts: folder, or added via that
> assign. The other two are possible.
>
>> Hello Deron,
>>
>> I thought the other day that it would be cool if we could finally get
>> rid of the assign jungle in the Amiga version. A well-behaved program
>> shouldn't need more than one assign; in fact, it should (if possible)
>> use PROGDIR: and require no assign at all.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Daniel
>
>
> Deron Kazmaier - support@grasshopperllc.com
> Grasshopper LLC Publishing -http://www.grasshopperllc.com
> PageStream DTP for Amiga, Linux, Macintosh, and Windows
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Regards
--
Lázi
lazi@freemail.hu
www.dunaweb.hu/~szimbiozis
-=( A1200/060 2+80RAM SCSI Scanner VinylCutter PicassoII HpLJ4 BJC6000 )=-
-=\****Micronik ZorroII-Infinitive tower- HP CLj 4500DN -IOBlix ZII****/=-

Hello Daniel

PROGDIR: is not a good option, because external programs cannot locate
PageStream.

On 23-Mar-05, Daniel Jedlicka wrote:
>
>
> Hello Deron,
>
> I thought the other day that it would be cool if we could finally get
> rid of the assign jungle in the Amiga version. A well-behaved program
> shouldn't need more than one assign; in fact, it should (if possible)
> use PROGDIR: and require no assign at all.
>
> Best regards,
> Daniel
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Regards
--
Lázi
lazi@freemail.hu
www.dunaweb.hu/~szimbiozis
-=( A1200/060 2+80RAM SCSI Scanner VinylCutter PicassoII HpLJ4 BJC6000 )=-
-=\****Micronik ZorroII-Infinitive tower- HP CLj 4500DN -IOBlix ZII****/=-

Lazar Zoltan wrote:

> PROGDIR: is not a good option, because external programs cannot locate
> PageStream.

Why should external programs need to locate PageStream?

If the Installer needs to know where a previously installed version of
PageStream is located, then an environment variable is the right way to
specify it. Not by using an assign.

Hi pals,

As Uffe has already said, assigns are rarely necessary today. You can
(and should) use PROGDIR: whenever possible. First, an assign sort of
ties your program to a certain place:

assign Pagestream: WorkTP/Pagestream

Now when you move your installation or relabel your disk, you'll have
to edit your User-Startup and change the assign(s) appropriately. With
PROGDIR:, the path is relative and will work with the new location
automatically. That's what I call "Amiga behaviour".

Second, assigns use up system resources. What would happen if all
programs used three assigns? How long would you have to scroll through
the device/volume list in Your Favourite File Manager(tm)? And how
long your User-Startup would become?

Third, the logic of the thing: I have a "Pagestream3:" assign without
Pagestream 3 actually installed. Confusing. And when I upgrade to V5,
will I get "Pagestream5:" too?

Thank you for bearing with me but I'm sure you see my point.

Best regards,
Daniel

Daniel Jedlicka wrote:

> As Uffe has already said, assigns are rarely necessary today. You can
> (and should) use PROGDIR: whenever possible.

In my opinion, PageStream have absolutely no need for any assigns.
However, depending upon the extent of the work needed to remove any
dependencies of any assign, I don't think it is worth the effort to
remove them from the source code. The time could be spent on other more
necessary stuff.

Uffe Holst wrote:
> In my opinion, PageStream have absolutely no need for any assigns.
> However, depending upon the extent of the work needed to remove any
> dependencies of any assign, I don't think it is worth the effort to
> remove them from the source code. The time could be spent on other more
> necessary stuff.

I agree with you totally there. Most probably, the changes necessary can be
done by doing a search and replace for "PageStream:", "PageStream3:" and
"PageStream4:" to "PROGDIR:" in all the sourcecodes. If it's more complex
for some reason, maybe it's not worth the trouble. A screen blanker with
three assigns would get deleted on my system, but for something like PgS
these things can be tolerated.

The only use for the global assign that I can think of, is if PageStream
savefiles would have something like "PageStreamageStream" as a default
tool. Then the assign would make these programs load in PageStream wherever
it is located. But, that is not the case, as far as I can see. Also, a
better way to achieve the same thing is that the system uses data types to
recognise PageStream files (writing a PageStream data type should not be
very difficult if someone is bothered enough).

--
/Johan Rönnblom

On Thursday 24 March 2005 04:52 am, Johan Rnnblom wrote:
> Uffe Holst wrote:
> > In my opinion, PageStream have absolutely no need for any assigns.
> > However, depending upon the extent of the work needed to remove any
> > dependencies of any assign, I don't think it is worth the effort to
> > remove them from the source code. The time could be spent on other more
> > necessary stuff.
>
> I agree with you totally there. Most probably, the changes necessary can be
> done by doing a search and replace for "PageStream:", "PageStream3:" and
> "PageStream4:" to "PROGDIR:" in all the sourcecodes. If it's more complex
> for some reason, maybe it's not worth the trouble. A screen blanker with
> three assigns would get deleted on my system, but for something like PgS
> these things can be tolerated.
>
> The only use for the global assign that I can think of, is if PageStream
> savefiles would have something like "PageStreamageStream" as a default
> tool. Then the assign would make these programs load in PageStream wherever
> it is located. But, that is not the case, as far as I can see. Also, a
> better way to achieve the same thing is that the system uses data types to
> recognise PageStream files (writing a PageStream data type should not be
> very difficult if someone is bothered enough).

I could be wrong and it has been a long time since I used an Amiga, but
wouldn't the assigns (not the proliferation, but at least one) be helpful for
external applications. For example, an ARexx script?

That said, I think it is probably mainly the size of the source code. I
remember when PgS 4 came out and introduced the PageStream4: assign in
addition to the others...

Tim Doty

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 05:45:57 -0600, Tim Doty wrote:

> I could be wrong and it has been a long time since I used an Amiga, but
> wouldn't the assigns (not the proliferation, but at least one) be helpful for
> external applications. For example, an ARexx script?

The ARexx script could simply ask the user for the place where PGS is
installed.

At least on the Amiga, using assigns in 3rd party apps should be avoided
whenever possible because it indeed clutters file requesters and startup
scripts, as expressed in this thread.

And switching to environment variables just moves the problem elsewhere...

Tim Doty wrote:

> I could be wrong and it has been a long time since I used an Amiga, but
> wouldn't the assigns (not the proliferation, but at least one) be
> helpful for
> external applications. For example, an ARexx script?

Anything can of course be helpful. However, an ARexx script really
shouldn't have anything to do in PageStream's home directory.

And if it really should have anything to do there, then the path to the
PageStream home directory should be obtained in one of two ways, either
1) from an environment variable holding the path, or 2) by asking
PageStream itself about its home directory.

Uffe Holst wrote:
> Anything can of course be helpful. However, an ARexx script really
> shouldn't have anything to do in PageStream's home directory.

I think it would have about one single use: So that it can start PageStream,
if it's not already running. But using an assign for this is not really
sensible, I think. An environment variable is better, and if this variable
isn't there or PgS can't be found where it points, a well written script
should ask the user and (re)set the variable.

--
/Johan Rönnblom

David Rey wrote:

> And switching to environment variables just moves the problem elsewhere...

No, because assigns clutters your file requesters, environment variables
don't. The just sits somewhere in a directory on your harddrive when not
in use.

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 13:11:54 +0100, Uffe Holst wrote:

>> And switching to environment variables just moves the problem elsewhere...

> No, because assigns clutters your file requesters, environment variables
> don't. The just sits somewhere in a directory on your harddrive when not
> in use.

Do you really want an env var for every app you install?

David Rey wrote:

> > No, because assigns clutters your file requesters, environment variables
> > don't. The just sits somewhere in a directory on your harddrive when not
> > in use.
>
> Do you really want an env var for every app you install?

Rather an environment variable than an assign.

Hi David,

> Do you really want an env var for every app you install?

No, just like I don't want an assign for every app I install.
But if PROGDIR: cannot be used for some reason, an environment
variable is a better solution than an assign. Of course if a program
doesn't need it, putting an env var into your ENV(ARC): dir would
have no sense.

Regards,
Daniel

On 24/03/05, Johan Rönnblom wrote:

> The only use for the global assign that I can think of, is if
> PageStream savefiles would have something like "PageStreamageStream"
> as a default tool. Then the assign would make these programs load in
> PageStream wherever it is located. But, that is not the case, as far
> as I can see.

Icons are not produced for PGS data files, so there are no Tooltypes.

> Also, a better way to achieve the same thing is that the
> system uses data types to recognise PageStream files (writing a
> PageStream data type should not be very difficult if someone is
> bothered enough).
>
Regards
--
Don Cox
doncox@enterprise.net

Don Cox wrote:
> On 24/03/05, Johan Rönnblom wrote:
>
>
>>The only use for the global assign that I can think of, is if
>>PageStream savefiles would have something like "PageStreamageStream"
>>as a default tool. Then the assign would make these programs load in
>>PageStream wherever it is located. But, that is not the case, as far
>>as I can see.
>
>
> Icons are not produced for PGS data files, so there are no Tooltypes.

True, but because the pagestream document file format has a clearly
defined header (IFF as I remember, been a while since I looked), one
creates a def_pgs.info icon and defines an entry in deficons for
pagestream documents. I haven't gotten around to doing this in OS4 yet,
but I did a while ago on my A4060 running 3.9. Thus the Pagestream:
assign is useful outside the scope of the Pagestream program. I agree
that if possible Pagestream itself should reference based off PROGDIR:
when ever it needs to access one of it's axillary files, but there
should be a Pagestream: assign made. (Besides, without the Pagestream:
assign, how would I be able to type in a shell "wo
pagestream:pagestream"? umm... wo is a 3rd party shell program (find it
on aminet) that allows you to run a program or open a directory from the
shell as if you double-clicked on the icon in workbench, stands for
Workbench_Open.)

>>Also, a better way to achieve the same thing is that the
>>system uses data types to recognise PageStream files (writing a
>>PageStream data type should not be very difficult if someone is
>>bothered enough).

Umm... _Can_ the datatype system launch programs from the datatypes?
I've never seen it happen, but most of the time that I know that I'm
using datatypes is with Multiview. Possibly you are thinking of deficons
(as I mentioned above)?

--
Chris Elliott

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 10:21:16 -0500, Chris Elliott wrote:
> wo is a 3rd party shell program (find it on aminet) that allows you
> to run a program or open a directory from the shell as if you double
> -clicked on the icon in workbench, stands for Workbench_Open.)

Hm... ever heard of c:WBRun?

> >>The only use for the global assign that I can think of, is if
> >>PageStream savefiles would have something like "PageStreamageStream"
> >>as a default tool. Then the assign would make these programs load in
> >>PageStream wherever it is located. But, that is not the case, as far
> >>as I can see.
> >
> >
> > Icons are not produced for PGS data files, so there are no Tooltypes.
>
>True, but because the pagestream document file format has a clearly
>defined header (IFF as I remember, been a while since I looked),

Yes, it is IFF. The FORM type is 'DOC ' (and was registered).

>one
>creates a def_pgs.info icon and defines an entry in deficons for
>pagestream documents. I haven't gotten around to doing this in OS4 yet,
>but I did a while ago on my A4060 running 3.9. Thus the Pagestream:
>assign is useful outside the scope of the Pagestream program.

Deron Kazmaier - support@grasshopperllc.com
Grasshopper LLC Publishing -http://www.grasshopperllc.com
PageStream DTP for Amiga, Linux, Macintosh, and Windows