Since XploRe does not make any entries in the Windows registry, we need another mechanism to get the basic settings into XploRe . Thus, if you double click on XploRe , then the file XploRe.ini will be read as the first file. If you start XploRe from a DOS box or create a link, then you might use the following syntax to force XploRe to read a specific ini-file:
xplore -ini C:\xplore\myini.iniLet's analyze the standard XploRe.ini file which contains a set of lines like
# The following variables are influencing the behavior of \xplore{}: # # os operating system (cannot be overwritten) ... # # should point to the next XploRe WWW site, # # Germany (Berlin), http://www.xplore-stat.de # USA (Fairfax, VA), http://www.galaxy.gmu.edu/~xplore/ # xpl4nethome=http://www.xplore-stat.de # # basic directory given by the system administrator # xpl4syshome=C:\XploReThe lines starting with # will be considered as comments and ignored by XploRe . The beginning of the file lists all possible environment variables which can be modified. The only exception is the environment variable os, which is set internally by XploRe . Most of the environment variables can also be changed within XploRe by the command
At the begin of XploRe.ini, we find the environment variables outheadline, outlayerline, outlineno and outmaxdata. The effects of these variables and their default values are described in Read and Write (15). The following variables from browser to rpclink are of minor interest for Windows, since they are intended for the XploRe server and for the Unix version of XploRe . The exception is startup, which tells XploRe which startup program it should read (see next section, the default is startup.xpl).
Then we will find four sets of variables named xpl4...home, xpl4...lib, xpl4...data, xpl4...help, xpl4...dll, xpl4...prog, xpl4...temp. These variables tells XploRe where to read and write data, libraries, programs, help and temporary files.
xpl4...home is for the convenience of the user.
E.g. if xpl4syshome is set to
C:\
XploRe, then the variable xpl4syslib will be set
automatically to C:\
XploRe\
lib, xpl4sysdata will be
set to C:\
XploRe\
data and so on.
None of the xpl4...home variables can be modified
from within
XploRe
.
The xpl4net... variables are used to get information over the Internet. Only xpl4nethelp is used to find a help system, if no local help system is found. To use this possibility, you need to have connection to the Internet. These variables cannot be modified from within XploRe . The xpl4sys... variables are to find the locally installed libraries, data and programs which come with XploRe . Normally the system administrator will set these variables on the directory where XploRe is installed. These variables cannot be modified from within XploRe .
In contrast to all other variables, the xpl4out... variables should
contain only one directory. This is the place where
XploRe
writes the data,
e.g. written by the command
write
, and all other files. A
variable that should be modified with care is xpl4outtemp,
which tells
XploRe
where it can write its temporary files. If
this points to a directory which does not exist or
where the user has no write permission, then
XploRe
will not
start at all.
Finally there is a set of variables xpl4home, ..., xpl4temp which can be modified by the user.
The following XploRe.ini file is a minimal setup for
XploRe
,
assumed
XploRe
is installed in C:\
XploRe:
xpl4nethome=http://www.xplore-stat.de xpl4syshome=C:\XploRe
We point to the XploRe home URL and to the local installation directory of XploRe . Assume now you move the whole installation from C: to D:. The only thing you will have to change is the entry xpl4syshome:
xpl4nethome=http://www.xplore-stat.de xpl4syshome=D:\XploRe
Whenever
XploRe
tries to read data (e.g. if you called
the command
read
with no absolute path), then it will try
to read the data from