Re: Installing package documentation
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg91438] Re: Installing package documentation
- From: Albert Retey <awnl at gmx-topmail.de>
- Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:57:06 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <g8j83e$6ve$1@smc.vnet.net>
John Jowett wrote: > Hello, > While learning how to get documentation for my own packages to > show up in the Mathematica 6 Documentation Center, I came across > something that may puzzle other people. Perhaps it's worth a posting: > > Although I prepared the documentation of the package complete with > pacletinfo.m file, etc., I found that it did now show up in the > "Installed Add0Ons" page of the Documentation Center. This turned out > to be because I installed the packages, not in $BaseDirectory/ > Applications or $UserBaseDirectory/Applications, but in another > directory that is prepended to the value of $Path on kernel startup > (by my kernel init.m file). I do this because I share the packages > with colleagues and it saves them the trouble of re-installing when I > make small updates (one can discuss whether this is good practice or > not ...). > > Anyway, it turns out that there is a global option for the Front End > called AddOnHelpPath that seems to control the path searched. However > its help page says > > "This function has not been fully integrated into the long-term > Mathematica system, and is subject to change" > > So now I am trying to decide whether to tell my colleagues to change > this or to switch to distributing packages for them to install on > their own computers. > > John Jowett > Do you know about the environment variables MATHEMATICA_BASE and MATHEMATICA_USERBASE which can be set on most (all?) platforms? It might be an alternative to changing the various $*Path variables at the right places... Of course your colleages would need to change that variable or use a special start-script for mathematica which sets that variable. hth, albert