---Bill Harris wrote: > That brings up a related problem: is there a summary of good practices > for managing associated J files? I like that you've moved > ~user out of > the J directory for several reasons, but I do have to modify my backup > scripts to find j602-user (I was backing up My Documents plus a few > other specific files, and this is now another one to grab).
I prefer to have my j602-user folder as a sub-directory of <user>\Documents (<user>\My Documents in XP). If you wanted to do this you need to create an appropriate profilex.ijs in ~system\bin\. See ~system\bin\profilex_template.ijs for instructions, use a variation of example 3 to create your user directory in ...\My Documents\j602-user. That would mean you don't have to modify your backup scripts, but may not suit you for other reasons. I certainly prefer having it in My Documents on XP because it is easier to navigate to <user>\My Documents\j602-user than to <user>\j602-user. Others have argued that <user>\j602-user is more logical and in the end I suppose it just comes down to what works best for you. > My problem is that I now have directories in Program Files for j406, > j503a, j504, j601, and j602. "One of these days" I promise > myself I'll > go through and move older scripts to the latest version, fixing any > problems along the way, but that one day never seems to get here in > general. Thus I don't delete an older released J engine just > in case I > need it, and I don't blindly move the contents of the user directory > from one version to the next without good testing on my part. As you > can guess, these are mostly programs I use on somewhat rare occasion, > not production programs I would have fixed at the upgrade. > > If J didn't evolve, I'd suggest just having a j-user directory, not > j602-user, but I realize that various changes over the versions have > made such an approach risky. I've in effect done that on > some programs, > as I've stored certain J scripts with the project I've been working on > at the time instead of in ~user, and I probably haven't always > documented the J version such scripts were last known to run on. I too would be interested in tips from more experienced users. I've only been using J since j601 and therefore don't have much "baggage" (yet), so I was able to update & move all my old j601 scripts to j602 without too much problem. Going forward I can see this will become an issue for me and currently I envisage multiple versions of J installed side by side in Program Files, pointing to their version-specific ~user folders in <user>\Documents. As I migrate code to the next version I would move it from <user>\Documents\j602-user to <user>\Documents\j603-user. However the above is all untested theory and yet to be subjected to the vagaries of "real life"! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
