AddAssign V1.04 Manual ====================== Copyright: ---------- (c) 1991 Alexander Rawass Alexander Rawass Wilhelminenstraße 44 6700 Ludwigshafen 15 Germany 0621/57 75 98 AddAssign consists of two programs, named 'AddAssign' and 'AddAssignInstall'. Both of them are freely distributable ShareWare; that means, the author allows free copying and spreading of his program, as long as there is no profit made for the distributor. The copyright for the program and the source-code remains with the author. If you use AddAssign regularly, you have to pay the ShareWare-fee of DM 5 (Deutschmark) or US$ 5 (please send the money to the above address). If you have payed, you are a registered user and receive the latest update of AddAssign as soon as possible per disk. Using AddAssign without paying the ShareWare-fee is both illegal and immoral ! I. What is AddAssign for? line 37 II. Examples line 69 III. Usage of AddAssign line 124 IV. Compiling line 137 V. Distribution line 154 VI. Last and least line 102 What is AddAssign for? ---------------------- AddAssign is a small system patch like FastDir, ViewDos, PatchReq, SnoopsDos,etc. It is an improvement for the normal 'assign' command. With the standard 'assign', you may assign a logical device only to ONE volume or subdirectory at a time. This will get you in trouble, if you wanted to split up one of your standard C:, LIBS:, DEVS: etc. directories (maybe in libs/math for the mathematical libraries, libs/needed for the libraries you need most and libs/never_needed_but_once for the libs you ...), cause AmigaDos will search (at a 'OpenLibrary' or 'OpenDevice' call) in the directory assigned by assign. With AddAssign, this becomes different. Now, you may put your programs in different directories, but when they are accessed (via DEVICE:program), AddAssign will search in all directories addassigned with AddAssign (oh my god, what a sentence!). Shortly, you can assign an already assigned logical device a second directory to search for (example : AddAssign c: df1:x). When hereafter a program is accessed with df0:c/prog or c:prog or :c/prog, AmigaDos will not only search in C: for prog, but also in df1:x. With this method, you can put programs or libraries which should be on the system disk on a second disk, without having any disadvantages. Remark : the standard CLI command 'path' will not work if a program is accessed as 'C:program', but AddAssign will work! Examples : ---------- without AddAssign : Open("c:startup") Dos searches only in SYS:C for STARTUP OpenLibrary("rekwester.library") Dos searches only in SYS:LIBS for REKWESTER.LIBRARY OpenDevice("drucker.devcie") Dos looks in SYS:DEVS for DRUCKER.DEVICE with AddAssign (after executing the following) : AddAssign c: df1:extras AddAssign c: df1:c AddAssign libs: df1:spezial/libs AddAssign devs: df2:treiber AddAssign devs: df0:normtreiber/devs Open("c:startup") Dos searches in SYS:C, DF1:EXTRAS, DF1:C for STARTUP OpenLibrary("rekwester.library") Dos will look in SYS:LIBS, DF1:SPEZIAL/LIBS for your REKWESTER.LIBRARY OpenDevice("drucker.device") Dos scans SYS:DEVS, DF2:TREIBER, DF0:NORMTREIBER/DEVS for DRUCKER.DEVICE A common example : You, the user, are examining your latest package of brand new fish disks for something useful, as you discover a program you want to try. Unfortunately, the program needs the 'oh_not_another_library_again.library', which you don't have at the moment in your LIBS: directory (and you don't want to copy it there, cause to lack of disk space or something else). So, what do you do? Normally (what is normal?) you would maybe do the following : assign LIBS: 'AmigaLibDisk999:usefulV3.6/libs' and then try to start the program. But so, the program may be able to open the 'oh_not_another_library_again.library', but it would not be able to open the 'diskfont.library' which is only available on SYS:LIBS! So what do you say? (§%$%&/$/$%$/&%%$/ (censored)) BUT IF YOU OWN ADDASSIGN, there is no problem for you. You just have to install AddAssign (if you haven't it installed in your startup-sequence) by typing 'AddAssignInstall', and then you will type 'AddAssign LIBS: AmigaLibDisk999:usefulV3.6/libs' and then execute your program, and -whoopee- Dos will look in the one directory for the one library on in the second for the other. (Hope you understood what AddAssign does) Usage of AddAssign : -------------------- AddaInstall : installs the patch in the system AddaInstall remove : removes AddAssign from your system AddAssign : after that, Dos will look also in of you access AddAssign list : lists all additional assigns made with AddAssign (P.S.: to work, AddAssign will need the arp.library in your LIBS: directory) Compiling : ----------- AddAssign was compiled under Aztec C V5.0a, having just a meagre MegaByte of RAM and very less place on my disks (owning no HD yet...) as addiglue cc addainstall -so -wdons -qv ln addainstall addiglue gads arpdetach -larp -lc cc addassign -so -wdons -qv ln addassign gads -larp -lc (whereas 'gads', 'arpdetach' and 'arp.lib' belong to the code to invoke the arp.library) Distribution : -------------- AddAssign is ShareWare. It may be freely ditributed as long as no profit is made for the distributor and as long as AddAssign is completely distributed (either as archive or in a directory). The program, the source code and all subroutines remain copyright by the author. to AddAssign belong : addassign - program addainstall - program addassign.doc - this documentation addassign.vertrieb - Germans, read this! addassign.readme - a short readme-file addassign.c - source addainstall.c - source addassign.h - some headerfile addiglue.asm - assembler glue routines ar_defs.h - some defines ar_funcs.h - some small functions I wrote (to compile, you'll also need gads.o, arpdetach.o and arp.lib from the arp.library package) I would like to see AddAssign distributed with some PD-series, like Fred Fish, Taifun, Kickstart, TBAG, etc. The newest version of AddAssign will be available at the following FTP-servers (I mean, when I've written them!) : ftp.uni-kl.de amiga.physik.unizh.ch ab20.larc.nasa.gov wolfen.cc.uow.edu.au (oops, are there any other good FTP-servers with amiga stuff in Europe?) Although I've no email-address, you can reach a friend of mine via : naddy@sun.rhrk.uni-kl.de (email) Mention my name, and he will ship me your letter (complaints, bug reports, ideas for improvement, etc.) Last and least : ---------------- there are some more small programs available from the author : FastDir will speed up directory access for disks enormously, is installed as a system patch and works with EVERY (multitasking) program ViewDos displays most of the access of DOS-routines in a window BookPrint prints manuals in a paper-saving way, printout will look very good and will be readable like a book CTab a C-source-code formatter MovieStrap strips out IFF-pictures from Moviesetter-Files (especially useful for the cute Eric-Schwartz anims, although it may be illegal) BookPrint Unix Version : the same as BookPrint, but written for Unix, works the same like 'pr', but is much much better and more reliable.