Workbench 3.1: Expansion Directory

[sim085]

Hi,

Whenever I install some program I first check where this is installed on ClassicWB to see if I am putting it in the right place (at least from a philosophical aspect). Lately I was told to install FullPalette and in ClassicWB this was placed in the Expansion directory. In ClassicWB the Expansion directory also has FBlit, TMeter and other.

However on another thread I read that the BindDrivers command will load drivers from this location!! So does this mean that this is not really the place for such application (ex: FBlit, TMeter, etc?). If not then what goes in this directory? I know that mostly anything works anywhere, but what really should go here?

Regards,
Sim085

[Thomas]

Lately I was told to install FullPalette and in ClassicWB this was placed in the Expansion directory. In ClassicWB the Expansion directory also has FBlit, TMeter and other.

This is wrong and has been fixed in the latest ClassicWB downloads. In the Expansion drawer only drivers to be loaded by the BindDrivers command may be stored. It's not a place to install programs to.

For example the XSurfIDE driver belongs into Expansion.

[kolla]

I never ever had anything in the Expansion folder on any of amigas, guess I've just been lucky with hardware.

[zipper]

The early version of prometheus.library was loaded by binddrivers. Then they moved to 21th century.

[Matt_H]

Yeah, Expansion is for soft-loading drivers for cards that don't Autoconfig. XSurfIDE, as mentioned, goes in there, as do Bridgeboard drivers and some SCSI controllers (such as the C= 2091 and GVP cards with the autoboot jumper disabled).

[sim085]

Thanks for the replies. So basically this directory is mostly related with hardware rather then software. I just downloaded the last version of ClassWB lite and I see that now all programs that where in Expansion directory are now in System directory. Is this ok?

I know that everything works everywhere, but philosophically shouldn't tools like FullPalette and FBlit be in prefs?

[countzero]

I know that everything works everywhere, but philosophically shouldn't tools like FullPalette and FBlit be in prefs?

yes, probably. Maybe yes for Fullpalette but I can't say for FBlit ...

Btw, I'm one of the dim people who never got the difference between a 'tool' and a 'utility' :angry: can someone enlighten me ? :hammer:

[rkauer]

My friend, the difference from tools and utilities are next to nothing at all.

 Tools are used to modify something (like HDToolBox or Prepcard), utilities are things like screen savers, calculator, etc.

[sim085]

and what about the Libs directory? isn't that also for hardware drivers?

[Matt_H]

and what about the Libs directory? isn't that also for hardware drivers?

Nope, that's Devs:.
Libs: is for .library files - shared collections of functions to support programs. GUI toolkits (Gadtools, Triton, MUI), the standard file requester, the AmigaGuide logic, the ARexx internals, those are all libraries.

That being said, some hardware manufacturers did use Libs: for software support (toccata.library), but it's a software interface to the hardware in a slightly different way then a .device, I think.

[Cammy]

FBlit should go in Workbench:C/

FullPalette is made up of a few parts. The main program "FPPrefs" goes in Workbench:C/, and the preferences tool "FullPalette" and its icon "FullPalette.info" go in Workbench:Prefs/

[sim085]

Thanks all the replies are helping me to learn a little bit more about Workbench. In the past I always used my Amiga to play games and now would like to explore a little more the reason why Workbench is structured as it is. Thanks again.

I am just realizing that Devs and Storage are practically the same. Is Storage use to backup stuff which otherwise would go to Devs?

[rkauer]

Storage is intended to keep drivers and such that are no need to access at boot times.

 Example: move to Storage/Monitors all the screen modes your monitor can't handle. If some day you got another monitor you can just move the new modes to DEVS:Monitors.

[kolla]

On a related note ... SYS:Storage/DOSDrivers is also part of the path where C:Mount will look for mountlist files, meaning you can type "mount mydevice:" in the CLI if you have a SYS:Storage/DOSDrivers/MyDevice mountlist file, and C:Mount will find it.

[rkauer]

Correct!