mdw@git.distorted.org.uk Git - ssr/blob - StraySrc/MiscToys/CurrDir/README

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   6              ©   1 9 9 4   S t r a y l i g h t
   7 ___________________________________________________________
   8
   9                        About CurrDir
  10
  11 For some reason, people appear to like to have the current
  12 directory in their command prompts.  Indeed, I wrote a code
  13 variable to do this last November.  Following a discussion
  14 on c.s.a recently, I decided to upgrade my program for
  15 doing this, and then, out of the kindness of my heart, give
  16 it away.  Nutty, isn't it?
  17
  18 So what makes Straylight currDir better than the other
  19 current-directory-in-a-code-variable utilities around?
  20 Well, for a start, it was written by Straylight.  For
  21 seconds:
  22
  23 * It does it the `right way' by using OS_FSControl 37
  24   (CanonicalisePath) on the string `@' which avoids
  25   problems with the mangling-system-variables approach,
  26   which can go badly wrong.
  27
  28 * It allows you to specify the variable name, so you can
  29   have lots of different variables with different options,
  30   if you want.
  31
  32 * It allows you to specify a `maximum length', beyond which
  33   the path name is truncated, so that the path string
  34   doesn't fill up the whole width of the screen.
  35
  36 The truncation is fairly sensible.  It will attempt to show
  37 you the filing system and disk name, if there is one, and
  38 will chop off the beginning, rather than the end, of the
  39 actual pathname, so
  40
  41   scsi::Wintermute.$.Straylight.Software.Freeware.Dynamite
  42
  43 might be shortened to
  44
  45   scsi::Wintermute.$...tware.Free.Dynamite
  46
  47 As you have no doubt noticed, an ellipsis (`...') is
  48 inserted to show that characters have been removed.
  49 ___________________________________________________________
  50
  51                        Using currDir
  52
  53 At simplest, just double-click on the `currDir'
  54 application.  This will create a system variable called
  55 `CSD' which contains your full current directory path.  You
  56 could then put in your prompt with a command like
  57
  58   SetMacro CLI$Prompt [<CSD>]
  59
  60 If you want to create a different variable, use the `-var'
  61 option, e.g.:
  62
  63   currDir -var My$Variable
  64
  65 If you want to specify a maximum length, use the `-maxLen'
  66 option, e.g.
  67
  68   currDir -maxLen 40
  69
  70 will ensure that the name never exceeds 40 characters.
  71
  72 You can't remove these variables in the normal way --
  73 *Unset will silently ignore your attempts.  Therefore
  74 currDir has a `-remove' option which you can use, in
  75 conjunction with `-var' if necessary, to kill a variable if
  76 you don't want it any more.
  77
  78 If you're stuck, typing
  79
  80   currDir -help
  81
  82 will provide you with some addmittedly fairly terse
  83 assitance.
  84 ___________________________________________________________
  85
  86                      Technical details
  87
  88 currDir is written as an application since it can
  89 safely quit once it has set up the actual code variable.
  90 Making it a Utility was a possibility, but that can have
  91 the nasty side-effect of fragmenting the module area.  It's
  92 unlikely you'll want to use it from anything other than the
  93 command line, so it shouldn't be that much of a problem.
  94 The program needs a little over 2K to run, so as long as
  95 you have a page of memory free you won't have any problems
  96 there.
  97
  98 currDir was written in an evening, using the Acorn ARM
  99 Assembler, which is jolly good, and I recommend it.
 100 ___________________________________________________________