Re: [Bug-apl] Should Continue wsid be stored with libref-0?

[Juergen Sauermann]

Hi Leslie, traditionally LIBREF-0 aka. the default library, has been assumed to be a non-shared library. The reason is that: 1. You need at least one non-shared (i.e per user) library. Exactly for storing the )CONTINUE workspace, and 2. many users (or at least myself) do not set up additional libraries. I just tested IBM APL2 (PC version) and they also store the CONTIUNUE workspace in the default library. Their library tree lives in a somewhat odd place: C:\Program Files/ibmapl2w. This roughly corresponds to something like /usr/bin/ibmaplw on GNU/Linux and would violate the file system hierarchy standard (FHS). You also get the same behavior that you describe below. Except that Windows is not normally used by different users. So IBM APL2 uses C:\Program Files/ibmapl2w\ for what is called the library root in GNU APL and uses the following fixed (non-configurable) mapping between library numbers and the sub directories of the lib root: 0: bin 1: wslib1 2: wslib2 GNU APL has adopted the naming (read: wslibN) of IBM APL2, but with the following changes: * use workspace instead of bin, * use 10 lib numbers instead of 3, and * make every library number configurable so that the user has full control over where the libraries live. It may be that IBM APL2 supports more than 2 wslib directories but only 2 are being installed by IBM APL2. In those they store some workspaces shipped with IBM APL2. I would say that the IBM lib numbers 1 and 2 roughly correspnd to GNU APL lib numbers 3, 4, and 5 in that they are used for workspaces shipped with GNU APL. The cool thing in your Dropbox setup is that you can say )CONTINUE on one machine and continue later on another machine. To me that looks more like a feature than a bug and you can easily configure otherwise if you don't like the feature. I would also assume that the scenario below only works if A, B, and C  are logged in on the same machine or network under the same user name, because otherwise they would get an error instead of overriding each other's CONTINUE workspace files. Best Regards, /// Jürgen On 05/04/2017 04:32 PM, Leslie S Satenstein wrote: Here is a simple scenario. LIBREF-0 /home/group/project1 With several users writing code for project1 User A issues a command )Continue and goes to lunch User B issues a command )Continue and goes to lunch User C issues a command )Continue and goes to lunch Who went last was the one whose )Continue was created for A, B, C Information for the other than last )Continue was overwritten Another possibility is that of A,B,C , two of them could have been saving or dropping )Continue This question is only a problem if LIBREF-0 is a shared library.  It is likely that it is shared. -- How so? I have the LIBREF-0 as pointing to my  /home/Dropbox/APLarea.  I have access to Dropbox from multiple systems. My view is that sometime in the future, we should consider that gnu-apl's  )Continue be stored privately within a /home/logonid/.gnu-apl   or as /home/logonid./apl-continue.xml Just some thoughts from an old Geezer who was an APL biggot beginning 1972  Leslie Leslie Satenstein Montréal Québec, Canada My first use of APL inhouse