sharing packages between multiple installations
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg46359] sharing packages between multiple installations
- From: pdickof at sasktel.net (Peter Dickof)
- Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 09:00:02 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Configuration: We have multiple Windows machines with separate single-machine V5.0.1.0 Mathematica licenses connected to a network. Each machine has mathematica installed on its C-drive as usual. Intent: We wish to share some packages that we have written by storing them on a network drive available to all these machines. That way we don't have to copy (and recopy and worry about version changes, etc etc) to everyone's local drive. Progress: I have found the mathematica symbols $AddOnsDirectory and $UserAddOnsDirectory (They don't appear in the Help browser index!) by looking at the help browser here: "Add-Ons&Links->Standard Packages->Appendix: How Mathematica)->AutoLoading Packages" and then finding the section "autoload directory". All I need to do is define (after unprotecting) the $AddOnsDirectory to point to the right place (L:/mystuff), and everything seems to work just the way I want. All the WRI stuff seems to work in its original location on the C: drive, and so does ours in its location on L:. I plan to put this in the initialization for every workstation. Puzzles: 1) How do we make the help notebooks we have written for our packages available in the help browser in a similar way? I set up BrowserCategories, etc etc which worked on the C drive in the appropriate location under Version 4.0, the question relates only to keeping them on the network drive and separate from the WRI distribution. The documentation says "You should place all new material that you want to add to the Help Browser in the Documentation/English/AddOns directory, which is specifically intended for the purpose.", but I want our help kept in a central location just like our code is (and preferable in the same directory with the code rather than split up the way WRI does it). Where/what symbol can I use to add our stuff to the search path used by "rebuild help index"? 2) Why is the ($AddOnsDirectory) so well hidden in the documentation? Is this not intended to be used in this way? There is also a $BaseDirectory and $UserBaseDirectory (see Appendix A.8.2, help browser "Mathematica Book->Mathematica reference guide->Mathematica File Organization->Loadable Files"), but that seems to require placing WRI stuff on the network drive too, which seems a) unnecessary b) a possible violation of our license and c) to mix up the WRI stuff and our own stuff. I would prefer to keep our work completely separate from the baseline installation. 3) The help file section "AutoLoading Packages" identified under "progress" has a hyperlink to Appendix A.8.7 but the link does nothing! Is there an Appendix A.8.7? How do I find it? Thanks in advance! Peter Dickof