Russell Gold wrote:
>
> At 5:00 PM -0400 7/5/00, Louis Tribble wrote:
> >> At 10:33 PM -0400 7/4/00, Peter Donald wrote:
> >> >Hi,
> >> >
> >> >Can someone point out where my stupidity lies here :P. I was under the
> >> >impression that working directory was impossible to set in java. However
> >> >recently I have been playing with
> >> >System.setProperty("user.dir","someotherdirectory") and everything seems
> >> >to
> >> >work !!! hmmm The only problems occured when I used relative paths. So
> >> >what
> >> >I did at the begining of my program was resolve any relative paths to
> >> >absolute paths. This means you have to resolve some system properties (ie
> >> >"java.class.path") and also some internal paths inside the program.
> >
> >Some comments:
> >
> >1. Doing this with user.dir is effectively using system properties
> >as a global constant pool (three whacks with a ruler).
>
> But isn't that what system properties are???
I guess I should have said global _variable_ pool :-) I guess
my chief objection is a design one. It's a weak typing rather
than strong typing, and its implicit dependency rather than
explicit dependency.
When redefined from the command line, I have less objection,
by the way. My main reservation in that case is that I know
of no requirement that the VM or native code honor it.
> I think it is likely that changing the property on the fly is not guaranteed
> to be safe; however, it should always be safe to establish it on the java
> command line:
>
> java -Duser.dir="/my/proper/directory" ProgramWhichCares
>
> as this setting will happen before any code copies it. The chief benefit of
> this would be to eliminate the need for the platform-specific batch files
> when starting a forked java task. This should work in any version of the JDK.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Russell Gold | "... society is tradition and order
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (preferred) | and reverence, not a series of cheap
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] | bargains between selfish interests."
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] | - Poul Anderson, "Iron"
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Louis Tribble [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Metamata, Inc. http://www.metamata.com
Tools for serious Java developers. +1 510 796 0915
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