Hi Steve,
for this first release of the Java software, which I thought we were
describing as a "beta release". My assumption (which I probably haven't
voiced) is that we'd have a voluntary opt-in by some new pseudo "init"
package that is separate from the classic system. So the obvious thing to
do this time around is create some scripts:
source /star/starjava/etc/login
source /star/starjava/etc/cshrc
(or should that be /starjava or /star/java?), that define all the
variables, aliases etc. needed to get this up and running.
Clearly in the longer term we need to resolve the issue of how to control
package access. Personally, as I've said from time to time, I think we
should seriously consider breaking with C-shell aliases as our primary way
of defining commands, using a PATH system would be more natural and shell
neutral. The problems are obvious, we would either need a single directory
or a standard system for adding, removing & promoting packages on the PATH
(which is complicated as a system like this needs to be shell-specific
anyway).
Documentation is also a nightmare, but clearly we should be thinking about
something like JavaHelp to do all this (you can search and print).
Just my pennies worth,
Peter.
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