draegtun/system-proposal.md

## system-proposal.md

      
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              system-proposal.md
            
          
    system/options/home

On Rebol 2 this points to user home directory (on Linux/OSX this is get-env 'HOME).   On r3 this is currently set to where the r3 executable lives.
As it stands we should rename system/options/home to make it clear this is where executable lives and avoid confusing with $HOME.  See %rebol.r
We can then reclaim system/options/home to replicate R2 behaviour (if we like?)
system/user or system/options?

Should user definitions live in system/user or should there be somewhere like system/options/user ??
To me if its in system/options then it implies it could be changed by command-line switch.  This seems right because you may want to do:
r3 --user-home "/root/MyHome/"

But perhaps user settings should only be updated by the %user.r file?
But what do we do with system/user??   Perhaps we just do...  system/user: system/options/user :)
Resources directory

This is where %repl-skin.reb is kept.  This could also be a good place to install local modules.
Currently system/user/rebol points to this.  I think this should change to something like resources within system/options
See metaeducation/ren-c#475 for how it currently work and how it may change (for Windows).
HOME on Windows

This is just a stub.  See comments from here - metaeducation/ren-c#475
%rebol.r

Currently on r3, if %rebol.r is found in system/options/home directory then %rebol.r is run.
This is (intended to be) a system-wide way to update or add features to rebol.  So %rebol.r needs to sit next to r3 executable and use the renamed system/options/home
Did Rebol 2 do exactly same thing?
%user.r ?

This available on r2 and I believe it is found in folder referenced by system/options/home.  Currently not (fully) implemented in r3.
I've never used this but I assume it just updates system/user ??
We can replicate this exactly or we can do something more like %repl-skin.reb, where it runs the file (so think of it like a user local %rebol.r) and then last expression is used to update system/user.  So an example of %user.r:
insert system/module-paths:  %/path/to/mylibs

import 'baz-lib    ;; because I always want this for all my scripts!

make object! [
    email: baz@baz.com
    resources: %/some/where/else    ;; I've redefined where I live?  Should I allow this??
]

If we do resurrect %user.r then I believe it should live under directory defined in Resources directory.
NB. At the moment (in host-start.r) %rebol.r & %user.r run after the switches.
command-line switches

There should be a command-line switch to suppress %rebol.r & %user.r so something like...
 r3 --suppress-startup-files

... alternatively it can be other way round (they don't run unless we provide a command-line switch)
Some other handy switches we could add...
 --suppress-console-skin
 --suppress "console-skin.reb"                      # alternate version
 --suppress "console-skin.reb user.r"               # so can suppress multiple startups
 --run-user-file "C:\Mystuff\MyRebol\user.r"      

NB. See more command-line switches in take 1 & take 2 ideas below.
So what could system/options look like?

Take 1

 system/options/exe-home        ;; Could be exe-dir or exe-path or something else?
 
 system/options/user/name       ;; is this users name on OS or "Joe Bloggs".
                                ;; _ unless set in %user.r
 
 system/options/user/email      ;; _ unless set in %user.r
 
 system/options/user/home       ;; start-up will populated this if it finds it! 
                                ;; Can be overridden by switch.  Could even be changed by %user.r !!
			        ;; alternate name choices:  home-dir, home-path
			    
 system/options/user/resources  ;; start-up will populate this if it finds dir under system/options/user/home
                                ;; can be overridden by switch or %user.r (Hmm? perhaps we shouldn't allow??)
			        ;; alternate name choices: resource-dir, resource-path
 
 system/options/user/words      ;; Don't know what this is but its currently defined (as _) in system/user
 
 system/options/home            ;; this could be an alias to system/options/user/home ??

Related command-line switches could be:
 --user-home "/usr/baz"   
 --user-resources "Some/where/not-in-my-home"
 --user-email "baz@baz.com"

take 2

 system/options/exe-home        ;; Could be exe-dir or exe-path or something else?
 
 system/options/home            ;; Same as Rebol 2  (ie. get-env 'HOME)
 
 system/options/resources       ;; Same as take 1 version except cannot be overridden by %user.r
 
 system/user/name               ;; see system/options/user/name in take 1
 
 system/user/email              ;; see system/options/user/email in take 1
 
 system/user/home               ;; start-up will populate this with system/options/home
                                ;; Can be changed by %user.r but this WON'T effect system/options/home (I think?)
			    
 system/user/words

Related command-line switches could be:
 --home "/usr/baz"   
 --resources "Some/where/not-in-my-home"

No --user-* switches.  Use %user.r to update system/user
ref: https://github.com/metaeducation/ren-c/blob/master/src/boot/sysobj.r#L580