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5:04 AM
Super User Blog: QoTW: How do I set PATH and other environment variables?
Posted by Simon Sheehan on June 6th, 2011

 

Being an avid computer user for years now, the PATH is something that has crossed me quite a few times now. So when I saw this question, it was time to put my learning hat on.

So now that we know what the PATH is, where are these things set? With a quick look around, I found it was easily found on Windows 7, by simply popping open the Start Menu and typing in “Environment.” The first option was Edit environment variables for your account. Click it, and here we are:

Let’s say I wanted to add my own, for a folder I frequently visit. I shall use eclipse for example. Currently my eclipse folder is located in C:\Users\Simon\eclipse. I hit NEW, and add in this: …

 
 
6 hours later…
slhck
slhck
11:09 AM
@TomWijsman What do you mean with the emphasized interesting?
 
 
2 hours later…
Tom Wijsman
Tom Wijsman
12:56 PM
@slhck: Asking something that is interesting to the majority of the readers.
 
 
5 hours later…
slhck
slhck
6:09 PM
@TomWijsman Oh okay now I got it. I though there was an emphasis on the content we had not being interesting -- But yeah, seems like a good idea.
 
Simon Sheehan
Simon Sheehan
6:54 PM
Hey guys, just letting you know I have submitted a blog post about Firefox Nightly.
 
Tom Wijsman
Tom Wijsman
7:07 PM
@SimonSheehan: I'm going to proof read it now. :)
I'm running a severely optimized version of Firefox Nighly.
But I'm still on 6.0a1 and need to optimize the compilation so that it takes reasonable less time and I can weekly compilations...
Parallel, caching amongst other things that boost it...
 
Simon Sheehan
Simon Sheehan
7:22 PM
@TomWijsman Haha, im a tad bit updated :P I like to keep up with the absolute latest. You optimize it yourself?
 
Tom Wijsman
Tom Wijsman
Yes, passed along a lot of optimization flags to the compiler.
 
Simon Sheehan
Simon Sheehan
ah, i see. I do not compile it myself, although i really should try it
 
Tom Wijsman
Tom Wijsman
I want to keep up with it to, but haven't recompiled one yet. Will surely do one of these days now that they are on 7.0a1.
 
Simon Sheehan
Simon Sheehan
Yeah, their really jumping version fast.
I dont totally understand why they are pushing for such a fast release schedule
 
Tom Wijsman
Tom Wijsman
Well, I took the defaults and added the optimization and now it takes some hours to compile.
 
Simon Sheehan
Simon Sheehan
7:24 PM
:o
Well then, guess its quite a bit to maintain then
 
Tom Wijsman
Tom Wijsman
But you can go through the advanced tutorial and use another make thing made in Python which allows you to do something like -j5 and such things to get the compilation time down.
 
Simon Sheehan
Simon Sheehan
Ah, isnt that for multiple processors?
Thats what i understood -j to be
(i'm very unfamiliar with compiling anything outside of java.)
 
Tom Wijsman
Tom Wijsman
2
Q: Why does make -j perform better when it is passed a number larger than the number of cores available?

DamirI have Quad core processor with hyper threading. When I use make -j8 it is faster then make -j4 (I read number of cores in Java and then call make -j number of processors and that is ok). I don't understand why make -j32 is faster then make -j8 when I have (read in Java) just 8 cores (hyperthre...

gcc make
It is about the amount of cores, then you set it to something like 1.5 * amount of cores and it gives a noticeable decrease in compilation time.
 
Simon Sheehan
Simon Sheehan
Oh Thanks, ill take a look at that
 
Tom Wijsman
Tom Wijsman
I generally don't care for compilation time for a lot of my own things, but for things the size of Firefox it really does help a lot...
Hope that I can get it down to something that I can do on a weekly basis.
 
Simon Sheehan
Simon Sheehan
7:32 PM
Right now I'd like to just get a linux system going to learn about this kind of stuff. Seems to be the right envrionment for it
 
Tom Wijsman
Tom Wijsman
Well, worked on Windows to me.
I'm way to dependent-on/used-to Windows to go and work in Linux; although I do have Gentoo for when it's necessary...
Hmm, they seem to have changed the silly about:memory list into a cool about:memory tree.
 
Simon Sheehan
Simon Sheehan
Yeah, I did find it interesting though
 
Tom Wijsman
Tom Wijsman
Hmm, 64 bit Firefox...
 
Simon Sheehan
Simon Sheehan
Yep. I'm talking to you from it right now :P
As i said though, with that comes the issue of some plugins requiring 64bit. Such as flash
 
Tom Wijsman
Tom Wijsman
Yeah, but according to your article Flash isn't a problem. Do you know about Java and Silverlight?
 
Simon Sheehan
Simon Sheehan
7:37 PM
I've had no issues with Java so far, using 64bit JRE.
 
Tom Wijsman
Tom Wijsman
And how do the speed tests compare between 32 bit and 64 bit? Because looking at IE9 I saw that they didn't write an optimized version for 64 bit.
Ah, no problem for the two major then. I believe it's possible to just use IE Tab for when Silverlight is needed?
 
Simon Sheehan
Simon Sheehan
I have honestly yet to see much of a speed difference between 32 and 64bit versions so far.
Well, ive actually never even touched silverlight in any way, no site but Microsoft's seems to use it
 
Tom Wijsman
Tom Wijsman
Always respond to a user action within 50 ms seems interesting...
 
Simon Sheehan
Simon Sheehan
That part struck me as interesting too.
I suppose their trying to make the entire engine faster.
 
Tom Wijsman
Tom Wijsman
Well, I see some sites that use it. But most of them are probably Microsoft-related.
 
Simon Sheehan
Simon Sheehan
7:39 PM
Well, i can give it a shot. One moment
 
Tom Wijsman
Tom Wijsman
And I used Silverlight to write an order tracker for my father because it seemed the easiest to write at that moment.
 
Simon Sheehan
Simon Sheehan
@TomWijsman Got any sites that use it you could link me too?
 
Tom Wijsman
Tom Wijsman
Although I'm planning to maybe rewrite it into a MVC 3 application with HTML 5 and CSS 3.
 
Simon Sheehan
Simon Sheehan
be right back
 
Tom Wijsman
Tom Wijsman
@SimonSheehan: Good article, only the last sentence needs to get some fixes:
> So if your feeling like trying out the latest and greatest Mozilla has to offer, and try out the Nightly Build.
"So if you are feeling" or "So if you have the feeling"
"then try out"
Scheduled it for tomorrow.
@BloodPhilia: I think Songbird is along the lines of the other four players in your article, it's up to you whether to add it or not... :)
Or well, it was popular some years ago but I don't know about it now so you should check Wakoopa out (which doesn't seem to work fine for me at the moment).
 
Simon Sheehan
Simon Sheehan
7:57 PM
@TomWijsman Great, ill fix that up :D
and done :D
Scheduled...tomorrow, awesome
 
 
3 hours later…
Mark Szymanski
Mark Szymanski
10:36 PM
Hey, does anyone know if there's a Markdown plugin installed on the blog?
Nevermind.
 

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