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21  Using Multiple Configuration (.INI) Files

(Enhanced in 4.0B.) TRUETEX stores all configuration and preference information for its programs in an initialization file. By default TRUETEX names this file TRUETEX.INI and keeps it in the same directory as the TRUETEX executable programs. If you want to configure TRUETEX for several users or for several preference configurations, you can set up any number of configuration files.

There are two ways for you to specify to TRUETEX where it should take its configuration information: a system-wide change or a per-icon change.

First, you can make a system-wide change by editing the Windows system initialization file, WIN.INI, to add a section ``[TrueTeX]'' containing an entry ``INIFILE=Path'', where Path is the name you choose for the .INI file you wish to use.

Second, you can use the ``-i'' command-line option to specify the .INI file to be used by specific TRUETEX Formatter and previewer icons. This option overrides both the default .INI file and any system-wide file you may have specified in WIN.INI.

To specify an .INI file for an icon, select the icon in the Program Manager and then choose File and then Properties. In the ``Command Line'' field of the Program Item Properties dialog, append a space and the option ``-i Path'', where Path is the name you choose for the .INI file you wish to use. (Note that there must be a space between ``-i'' and ``Path''.) If you enter a Path which specifies a file that does not yet exist, TRUETEX will create the file with default configuration and preferences the first time you launch the icon.

You can actually specify the Path parameter in several forms:

Example Description
-i c:'134mydir'134myfile.ini A fully qualified path and file name. The file is unambiguously specified. This is the safest option to use.
-i c:'134mydir'134 A directory only, indicated by the ending backslash, and no file name. TRUETEX will use the default name TRUETEX.INI in the directory you thus specify.
-i myfile.ini A file name only. This will use the Windows system directory to find or create the .INI file you have named. Use this form with caution, as it affects the Windows system directory.
-i .'134myfile.ini A relative path and file name. TRUETEX will use the file you have named in a directory relative to the ``Working Directory'' in the File Manager's ``Program Item Properties.'' Note that the resolution of this path will change if you later change the Working Directory for the icon, so use caution with this method.

If you need help debugging the use of custom .INI files, the Other Show environment menu item in the Formatter and View Show DVI Info item in the previewer will reveal the fully-qualified name of the .INI file used by the respective TRUETEX program.

The extended-DOS version of the Formatter, INITEX3X.EXE, also uses the command-line option -i to locate its .INI file. This allows you to either share or separate usage, as you wish, of the preferences used by the various DOS and Windows TRUETEX programs.

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