Re: Re: How change $AddOnsDirectory
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg41206] Re: [mg41169] Re: [mg41128] How change $AddOnsDirectory
- From: John Fultz <jfultz at wolfram.com>
- Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 03:54:55 -0400 (EDT)
- Reply-to: jfultz at wolfram.com
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
That it's not documented is a documentation bug. That's why I mailed the
list about it. The documentation on this point will hopefully be updated
in the next release.
Sincerely,
John Fultz
jfultz at wolfram.com
User Interface Group
Wolfram Research, Inc.
On Tue, 06 May 2003 08:56:22 -0700, Kirk Reinholtz wrote:
>While we're on this topic, I'm wondering how one would have discovered
>MATHEMATICA_ADDONS
>without resorting to this list. My help in "master index" mode does not
>find this. A
>search on the wolfram.com website in the "search site" box also comes up
>empty.
>
>I found a couple described in A.7.1 of the book, neither of which is the
>above, and a couple
>of others near the documentation for Environment["var"]. Do they all
>exist in one place???
>
>Where is this and other such goodies documented???
>
>John Fultz wrote:
>>
>>As of version 4.2, AddOns are no longer in versioned directories. I.e.,
>>$AddOnsDirectory won't change from 4.2 to 5.0 to future versions. It's
>>not clear to me from your email why you're trying to set up separate
>>directories (the desirability of sharing the AddOns directory between
>>versions is part of what motivated the design for $AddOnsDirectory in
>>the
>>first place).
>>
>>As to the decision to add "Mathematica" afterwards, this has to do with
>>the fact that we build non-Mathematica products which are based upon the
>>Mathematica binaries. These products would append their own identity
>>instead (for example, Calculation Center would append
>>"\CalculationCenter"
>>afterwards). So one environment variable setting can affect the base
>>directory chosen for $AddOnsDirectory by all Wolfram products.
>>
>>Sincerely,
>>
>>John Fultz
>>jfultz at wolfram.com
>>User Interface Group
>>Wolfram Research, Inc.
>>
>>On Mon, 05 May 2003 09:04:07 -0400, Murray Eisenberg wrote:
>>>Thank you -- but OUCH!
>>>
>>>I do not want to have "Mathematica" automatically appended to the path
>>>I
>>>specify! My directory structure has, under D:\Math, several separate
>>>directories for different versions of Mathematica
>>>(D:\Math\Mathematica4.0, D:\Math\Mathematica4.2, etc.)
>>>
>>>In order to use all my AddOns (except Standard AddOns), especially
>>>Applications, with all versions of Mathematica -- without having to
>>>maintain multiple copies of these AddOns -- I want a separate directory
>>>D:\Math\AddOnsMma for them (and then have subdirectories Applications,
>>>etc., of that.
>>>
>>>With the effect you describe of setting, say
>>>MATHEMATICA_ADDONS=D:\Math\AddOnsMma, then this would force everthing
>>>there to be buried one directory deeper than I want -- into
>>>D:\Math\AddOnsMma\Mathematica.
>>>
>>>On the other hand, if I set, say MATHEMATICA_ADDONS=D:\Math, then that
>>>would be obviously (?) undesirable: the directory would be
>>>D:\Math\Mathematica, which is obviously too much like the names of the
>>>top directories I'm using for the different versions of Mathematica
>>>itself.
>>>
>>>Why in the world was the design decision made to automatically append
>>>"Mathematica" to what those environment variables specified? Is there
>>>some decent way around this?
>>>
>>>John Fultz wrote:
>>>>You can set the default value of the parent of $AddOnsDirectory and
>>>>$UserAddOnsDirectory via an environment variable, which works for both
>>>>FE
>>>>and kernel.
>>>>
>>>>MATHEMATICA_ADDONS for $AddOnsDirectory
>>>>MATHEMATICA_USERADDONS for $UserAddOnsDirectory
>>>>
>>>>Mathematica will append '\Mathematica' to whatever you set, so if, for
>>>>example, you do:
>>>>
>>>>MATHEMATICA_ADDONS=D:\Math\AddOnsMma
>>>>
>>>>then the value of $AddOnsDirectory will be...
>>>>
>>>>"D:\\Math\\AddOnsMMa\\Mathematica"
>>>>
>>>>$AddOnsDirectory and $UserAddOnsDirectory in the kernel are intended
>>>>to
>>>>be
>>>>equivalent to something like $TopDirectory, which is to say that
>>>>they're
>>>>
>>>>constants derived from the system.
>>>>
>>>>Incidentally, the above is true for all operating systems; it is not
>>>>Windows-specific.
>>>>
>>>>Sincerely,
>>>>
>>>>John Fultz
>>>>jfultz at wolfram.com
>>>>User Interface Group
>>>>Wolfram Research, Inc.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>On Sun, 4 May 2003 03:57:04 -0400 (EDT), Murray Eisenberg wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>How do I supply a permanent new location for $AddOnsDirectory. This
>>>>>is
>>>>>under Windows XP.
>>>>>
>>>>>The HelpBrower documentation under "File Layout" seems to say that if
>>>>>I
>>>>>set a value for $AddOnsDirectory in an init.m file located somewhere
>>>>>on
>>>>>the ConfigurationPath, that value should be used.
>>>>>
>>>>>So in [top directory]\Configuration\FrontEnd -- where [top directory]
>>is
>>>>>the directory containing Mathematica.exe -- I created a file init.m.
>>In
>>>>>that file I tried, separately, all three of the following:
>>>>>
>>>>>$AddOnsDirectory="D:/Math/AddOnsMma"
>>>>>
>>>>>$AddOnsDirectory="D:\\Math\\AddOnsMma"
>>>>>
>>>>>$AddOnsDirectory=FrontEnd`FileName[{"D:", "Math", "AddOnsMma"}]
>>>>>
>>>>>None of these seems to have any effect, however: Once I open
>>>>>Mathematica, the value of $AddOnsDirectory is still its original
>>>>>value,
>>>>>namely,
>>>>>
>>>>>"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Mathematica"