On 14 Oct 1999 15:30:18 +0900, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>"Arnd Hanses" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>> Those paths are absolutely fixed and must not be changed. (If you
>> fiddle with them, X might even refuse to start up).
>
>This statement is simply untrue. The only thing fixed in X is the
>location of the host file for the server/clients connections.
>Other X related things are set at the server start-up time and users
>can easily change them. (xinitrc.cmd)
?? No. This is an complete understatement. Or don't we speak about the
same thing? I suspect there's some misunderstanding?
Just try to change arbitrarily the structure and location of the X11
directory and its content. It's location and of many of it's
contents/subdirs (most prominently 'XF86Config', 'rgb.txt') is
hardcoded to
$(X11ROOT)/XFree86/lib/X11 ,
and watch the fun. No chance to alter. And there are more...
>While LyX on OS/2, by default, considers the system directory is
> $(X11ROOT)/XFree86/lib/X11/lyx/
>which is *my* (not Holger Veit's) decision.
Sure! I know that. Don't misinterpret me. This is to take advantage in
a consistent way of the hardcoded structure of XFree86/2. So you have
all reason to hardcode too, as the user cannot alter the structure and
location of X11 directory contents (or the server won't startup).
>UNIX applications have
>tendency to hard code default directories
> -DFOO_BAR_PATH=\"$(pkgdatadir)/foo/bar\"
>into the binary and I thought
> + Even though the distinction between the system directory and the
> user directory is meaningless on OS/2, maintaining the OS/2
> specific routine for the path search is costly.
No doubt.
> + I can't assume users have /usr/local directory. Existing and
> unique (which drive?) directory is better suited for the system
> directory.
>If you can propose a better scheme, I'm willing to adopt.
Because of this hardcoded consistent structure automatic install is
possible and shouldn't be too hard. So this is the suggestion I tried
to make. As it seems there is a misunderstanding...
One might even think about spawning reLyX.cmd, etc. directly from a
hardcoded X11/lyx/reLyX directory that is not in path. This is what I'm
currently considering...
All in all I think everything should be as fixed/hardcoded as can be. I
don't see an advantage in using flexible directories; doing path search
according to Murphy's Law means: You'll catch always the bad old
outdated version sleeping somewhere in path first. So hardcoding means
better maintainability/updateability.
Best regards,
Arnd
