Allow SCIHOME to be specified by user (at start-up)
Reported by Alain Lamy
PROPOSAL DESCRIPTION
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For a given version of Scilab, the directory whose path is given by SCIHOME never changes:
it is chosen by Scilab.
This is fine in most cases for a standard use of Scilab, but not always.
There are cases where the same version of Scilab in used in various contexts.
For example :
- context 1 : standard use, using toolboxes (possibly loaded using atoms) with particular versions ...
For instance it may be the development version for some of the toolboxes.
- context 2 : Scilab is embeded in a particular tool. Specific toolbox versions are used
(for compatibility reasons), that is, not necessarily the same as above.
The problem is that Scilab itself and some of the toolboxes use SCIHOME to store configuration information.
It is then almost impossible to swich from context1 to context2 and vice versa because the configuration
information may depend on the versions of the toolboxes used, and also because Scilab configuration may be
different in both cases (scinotes options may be different between context 1 and context2 for instance...)
Hence this proposal to enable the user to (optionally) change the configuration directory (i.e. SCIHOME).
It could be done by adding an option like this:
> scilab -scihome <SCIHOME> -nouserstartup -f ...
- if the "-scihome" option is present, the specified path is used as Scilab
configuration directory (SCIHOME). If the directory does not exist, is is created.
- if the "-scihome" option is absent, Scilab's behaviour is unchanged.
Adding this option would make Scilab use much more flexible.
Alain