Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

[email protected] · Wed, 14 Jun 95 01:43:00 +0200

> >I'm not fond of environment variables.  Let's please assume that EPICS
> >is installed relative to ~epics instead.  If you really want $EPICS,
> >then, set it using ~epics.
> 
> I'm not fond of artificial accounts either!
> 
> Chip

I agree!  Since the "SLAC Computer Services" department sits in its own ivory 
tower and don't seem to recognize the last word in their name, it is very
painful to get root privileges or changes to things that require root 
privileges, like accounts, entries in usr/local or additions to the system
startup file.  Similarly, one can't just hand them packages like EPICS or
VxWorks and say "here, this is system level stuff so you guys take care of it".
Thus, I (with my EPICS maintainer's hat on) am infinitely happier with site 
specific setup files that I can change without having to pester anybody.  This
setup file should be invokable multiple times (for version switches) from a 
given session without growing $PATH or leaving other remnants of the previous
invocation.  *PLEASE*, don't make EPICS dependent on system's people.  It 
should be installable by anybody.

Now explain to me what's wrong with environment variables.  For what it's worth,
I don't like the $PATH concept.  When a new version of something comes out, 
$PATH is almost always in the wrong state when you want to flip back and forth
between the two.  It is too hard to change things in the middle of $PATH.  
Additionally, nonsophisticated users tend to add to $PATH willy-nilly.  Since 
it is order dependent, they often don't get the results they think they're 
going to get and thus end up grabbing a copy of the file and putting it in 
their own account.  So, to me, it would be more elegant if one were to be able
to use EPICS without having worry about the state of $PATH.

		Ric

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System