Re: Mathematica 3.0 preferences-file
- To: mathgroup@smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg12240] Re: Mathematica 3.0 preferences-file
- From: "P.J. Hinton" <paulh@wolfram.com>
- Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 03:29:35 -0400
- Organization: Wolfram Research, Inc.
- References: <6ibv8v$eo@smc.vnet.net>
On 1 May 1998, erwin wrote:
> Does anybody know where Mathematica 3.0 stores its preferences? Is this
> in the registry (I don't think so) or in a file. If it is a file can
> you tell me its name and location? And if it is a small file can you
> send it to me as an attachment?
> I ask this because I messed up my preferences.
Almost all of the default Mathematica 3.0 notebook front end settings
are hard coded into the front end, with the remaining settings stored
in a file called DefaultFrontEndInit.tr, which resides in the front
end's text resources directory.
As you make changes that deviate from the default set, the front end
stores the settings in the form of a SetOptions[$FrontEnd, ...] command
in an "init.m" file in the Mathematica preferences directory tree. The
path to the preferences directory tree under Windows can be:
[WINDOWS Drive]:\Program Files\Common Files (Windows 95)
[HOMEDRIVE]:[HOMEPATH] (Windows NT if home
directory is specified
in user profile)
Within this directory, the path to the settings is
Mathematica\3.0\FrontEnd\init.m
If this file has been corrupted, you can delete it. The next time you
start the notebook front end, the init.m file will be rebuilt from
scratch.
In the same directory as the init.m file, there resides a Caches folder.
Sometimes it is beneficial to delete this folder and its contents in
addition to the init.m file. This is especially true if you have
trouble restarting Mathematica after it has crashed.
For users of other platforms who may be interested in how this applies
to their problem, the only difference is in the path to the preferences
tree. Here are the other paths:
Macintosh: System Folder:Preferences
Unix: $HOME (your home directory)
Under Unix, the Mathematica folder is hidden because there is an
additional period (.) at the beginning of the directory name.
--
P.J. Hinton
Mathematica Programming Group paulh@wolfram.com Wolfram
Research, Inc. http://www.wolfram.com/~paulh/