Environment Variables

Environment variables are Operating System variables that are available to all running applications. To create an environment variable:

                1) For Windows 95: Use the Operating System's SET command. For
                example:
                                SET WINDDL_TMP = C:\TMP

                creates the environment variable WINDDL_TMP and assigns to it
                the value C:\TMP. Put this line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file if you
                want this done every time you boot up.

                2) For Windows NT: Same as above except for the part about the
                AUTOEXEC.BAT. If you want it done every time you boot up, use
                the Control Panel/System/Environment dialog to create this
                variable and assign a value to it.

Thunderbolt uses the following three environment variables. If used, they must be set prior to invoking Thunderbolt:

                WINDDL                               -The full-path folder name of where Thunderbolt's dictionary, help and diagnostic files are located.

You don't really need this since Thunderbolt knows where it itself is located, and the help, diag and dic files are usually in the same place.

                WINDDL_TMP                   -The full-path folder name of where run temporary files are to be located.

Temporary files are sort scratch space and collection scratch space. They go away when you close the application. It is best if you do use this environment variable
                and point us to a folder on your local hard drive. This significantly reduces network traffic. This assumes that you have enough free
                space on your local hard drive to accommodate the space that will be used. Also it is assumed that the folder you point us to already exists.

                WINDDL_CONFIG            -The full-path file name of a CONFIG file.

Please note that the first two required full path folder names but this one requires a full path file name.

How do I address an Environment Variable from a Procedure?

There are other handy environment variables that the Operating System uses that you can make use of. For example, the one called USERNAME.

Using USERNAME as the example, here is how to get the value of any Environment Variable from a procedure in your application (you can inspect them but you cannot set them):
                                                                                                set %xx="{$USERNAME}"

This will put the current value of USERNAME into your variable named %XX.
Notice that you use the $ sign to reference an Environment Variable and that the whole thing is surrounded with quotes and the braces as shown.