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Considerations:
The Expand library currently sports a number of functions that
make playing around with the Environment strings possible. Great
care has to be taken when doing so, as the functions perform unusual
tasks. The EnvXXXX() have to be approached with care, the SetEnv()
DelEnv() and ReadEnv() functions, on the other hand, can be used without
much prior knowledge.
Undocumented features are used to achieve this, so no guarantee can be
given that it'll work everywhere (although, to my knowledge, it does
work, as DOS also uses the same methods currently).
The EnvXXXX() functions alter the Original Copy of the environment
strings. Every time one loads a copy of COMMAND.COM, a block with
environment strings is supplied, which is what you see when you
type "SET" at DOS. When a program is invoked, a copy of those
strings is supplied to the program. The EnvXXXX() functions, however,
alter the contents of the original strings. Changes are thus
not visible when using Clipper's GetEnv(), but, they could be visible
to programs executed from the Clipper Application (*). This feature thus
makes it possible to change the PROMPT, the PATH or even add (or
delete) some Environment variables for child processes.
Note that the environment has a maximum size, which one can not exceed.
Note also that changes made to the environment are also kept when
the program terminates! Ensure yourself that you restore the
original enviroment when QUITting..
The EnvXXXX() perform quite 'Low level' Tasks. The other functions
use the EnvXXXX() functions to do what they are intended to do.
Again, please know what you're doing when playing with these functions..
It might also seem quite difficult to implement it for your application,
but have a look at EXPDEMO.PRG, which quite well illustrates setting
a different PROMPT for a Shell from Clipper, a feature much requested
for Clipper applications.
(*) You need to call a special function before running to ensure that.
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