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Re: sharing packages between multiple installations

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg46398] Re: sharing packages between multiple installations
  • From: drbob at bigfoot.com (Bobby R. Treat)
  • Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 23:43:22 -0500 (EST)
  • References: <c0qjkn$kb2$1@smc.vnet.net>
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

In any of these directories

$AddOnsDirectory
$BaseDirectory
$UserBaseDirectory

you can place "application" directories, such as "Ersek", where I put
all the packages I've downloaded that Ted Ersek wrote,
"TensorCalculus" where I put David Park's package for tensor calculus,
and "DrBob" where I put things I've done. In "DrBob" I have "Master.m"
from which I load utilities I've written.

There's a palette in the directory

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application
Data\Mathematica\Applications\DrBob\FrontEnd\Palettes

and Help Files (BrowserCategories, etc.) in

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application
Data\Mathematica\Applications\DrBob\Documentation\English

So... I think you're not far from what you want.

Bobby

pdickof at sasktel.net (Peter Dickof) wrote in message news:<c0qjkn$kb2$1 at smc.vnet.net>...
> 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


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