-path vs. -open

[Karl MacMillan]

> Having to enter command-line arguments within the Windows file
> association mechanism is not the idiomatic way of doing things anyway;
> every time you want to load different libraries you have to rewrite the
> command-line for the association. An environment variable or registry
> entry for a 'LIB' directory would be much more flexible, as I have
> suggested previously.
> 

As PD is cross platform I would really hate to see any platform specific
attributes added.  This would take away what I think is a strong point. 
In particular I think that any use of the registry should be avoided. 
As part of my job I help support several hundred windows desktop systems
and I can't tell you how many problems are caused by this windows
'feature'.  It works so poorly many large software companies refuse to
code for it.  I agree with Richard that environment variables are not an
elegant solution under windows - I am not even a fan of application
specific enviroment variables under unix.  Plain text file .pdrc (unix)
or pd.ini (windows) seem like the best choice to me.  Many of us really
dislike the windows way of doing things - probably as much as many
people dislike the unix way of doing things.  Any solution that steers
clear of either direction is probably good and I think that .rc and .ini
files are pretty neutral.  Just my two cents.

Karl
 
> Guenter Geiger wrote:
> >
> > forum::=?iso-8859-1?Q?f=FCr?=::=?iso-8859-1?Q?uml=E4ute?= writes:
> >  > Since pd-0.27 I found it impossible to use the "-open" start-up argument
> >  > on Win95.
> >  > When using p.e. "pd -open hallo", pd is looking for "hallo.dll" which
> >  > cannot be found (that's because I want to open "hallo.pd";
> >  > trying "pd -open hallo.pd", pd looked for "hallo.pd.dll", which makes me
> >  > laugh on one hand and cry on the other.
> >  >
> >  > I thought of it only as a Win32 problem, so I tried it on debian,
> >  > getting "hallo : can't load library" vs. "hallo.pd : can't load library"
> >  >
> >  > Am I missing something really important ?
> >  >
> >
> > pd something.pd
> > "opens" something.pd ......
> >
> > "-open is a synonym for -lib" .... this is not documented correctly.
> >
> > Guenter
> >
> >  > mfg.bws.aeg
> >  > hannes
> >  >
> 
> --
> Test your DAW with my Soundcard Attrition Page!
> http://wkweb5.cableinet.co.uk/rwd (LU: 23rd August 1999)
> CDP: http://www.bath.ac.uk/~masjpf/CDP/CDP.htm (LU: 14th June 1999)

-- 
_____________________________________________________
| Karl W. MacMillan                                 |
| Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University |
| Network and Telecommunications Services           |
| karlmac at peabody.jhu.edu                           |
| 410/659-8297                                      |
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