X-Authentication-Warning:	acp3bf.physik.rwth-aachen.de: broeker owned process doing -bs
Date:	Tue, 20 Jul 1999 15:38:39 +0200 (MET DST)
From:	Hans-Bernhard Broeker <broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>
X-Sender:	broeker AT acp3bf
To:	Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
cc:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: initialization file for gnuplot 3.7
In-Reply-To:	<Pine.SUN.3.91.990720160827.20658D-100000@is>
Message-ID:	<Pine.LNX.3.93.990720152820.212F-100000@acp3bf>
MIME-Version:	1.0
Reply-To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
X-Mailing-List:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
X-Unsubscribes-To:	listserv AT delorie DOT com

On Tue, 20 Jul 1999, Eli Zaretskii wrote:

> 
> On Tue, 20 Jul 1999, Hans-Bernhard Broeker wrote:
> 
> > Unlike most of the existing GNU programs, gnuplot *does* already have a 
> > documented working solution for it's startup file on MS-DOS
> 
> What other GNU programs don't have this documented, to the best of your 
> knowledge?  I only know about one (GDB).

What I meant was that most GNU programs (setting aside the DJGPP ports,
for a moment) still expect their startup files, if any, in the
Unix-typical '~/.program' form, which cannot work in DOS, because of the
leading '.'. gnuplot, however, has long since been adapted to MS-DOS, in
that the file name is documented to be different than it is on Unix:  it's
"$GNUPLOT/gnuplot.ini".

The DJGPP ports of Unix programs, AFAICS, either assume you're working on
Win95, where you can use '~/.program', or they have been changed to check
for '~/_program', as well, to make DOS users happy. 

This change from '.program' to '_program' is only necessary because the
program itself didn't pay attention to MS-DOS, before the DJGPP port was
made. In other words, these programs still 'feel like' Unix programs, even
though they're now running on DOS. gnuplot does already take DOS into
account by itself, so it's there's nothing broken that would need to be
fixed. 

This boils down to the following, somewhat philosophical question:  is
gnuplot compiled by DJGPP a DOS or a Unix version of gnuplot? If it's a
DOS version, it should behave like other existing DOS versions (-->
gnuplot.ini). If you prefer to see it as a Unix program, then it should
look for ~/.gnuplot and, consequently, also for ~/_gnuplot. 

Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

- Raw text -