Re: DOS, how long?

From: Programmer Dude (Chris_at_Sonnack.com)
Date: 10/20/03 

Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2003 11:49:23 -0500

Richard Heathfield wrote:

>>> win.ini :-)
>>
>> Win.ini is really the Registry Version -1 (or something like that).
>> You'll find the old "Profile" calls in the same section as the
>> newer Registry calls. But for all that, not a bad answer.
>
> <appname>.ini would have been a better answer, though.

I would consider it a *worse* answer! You either need to pollute
the Windows directory with <appname>.ini, OR you're right back to
the original problem (not knowing the directory), because you have
to supply the full pathname to access "private" INI files.

One should also consider that INI files are considered obsolete by
Windows and *can* be mapped onto Registry calls in some conditions.

Personally, if I were going to use INI files, I'd skip Windows' API
altogether and use my own INI file library (which provides greater
control and flexibility and is cross-platform (it was originally
developed on unix to replicate Windows INI files!)).

But that doesn't help with finding the app directory.

>> ..."environmental variables"...
>
> If a user doesn't know what a directory is, how on earth is he
> supposed to know what an environment variable is?

True, but *you* can set those during install in a variety of ways.
("EnVars" would be about my last choice, though. I consider them
a "quick'n'dirty" method.)

> Believe it or not, I actually used WinGrep (and Turbo C's grep)
> way before I used the Linux grep.

I had the TC (and someone else's MS-DOS version of) grep for a
short while before I learned unix, but it wasn't well documented,
so I never really got into it. Unix changed all that! (-:

That started a search for unix tools that worked in Windows, and
WinGrep was a *wonderful* find! I just wish it handled full regex's
rather than the simplified set it does. 

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