Allow more library paths for ALD/ALE

[jtripoz]

We can specify ALD '3B2' libraries path, using -I:C:/PATH/TO/LIBRARY/lib/ and we use this mechanism to add our own libraries.

As of version 12, APP/ALD provide some extra features - MathJax and OpenType - as '3B2' libraries.But, there is only one '3B2' library path and the default {@}libs is superseded by ours and thus MathJax and OpenType are no longer available...

A possible override is to add MathJax and Opentype to our libraries - but this may cause problem if a given version of those libraries is related to a given ALD version.

It might be interesting to allow to have both ALD {@}libs AND an extra library library path.

[GarethOakes]

Library management is an interesting subject. What we've done in some of our systems is implement a "require" keyword. This Javascript keyword can be used to indicate what libraries to load. Because the libraries are loaded as the "requires" are encountered this allows for dependency chains to be constructed in the library modules. Perhaps a similar concept would be worth exploring? MathJax and OpenType "depend" on APP. CustomerLibrary1 "depends" on MathJax. CustomerLibrary2 "depends" on MathJax, OpenType, and CustomerLibrary1. How the libraries are physically retrieved and stored is part of the solution here. (We use git and in this case would have to bring the MathJax and OpenType libraries in to our git repo, as we don't have a way to map vendor-provided libraries, as Jacques has suggested)

[SimonTaylor]

When we look further into the idea of Workspaces in ALD, this would be an interesting addition to the idea.

Thanks Jacques

[SimonTaylor]

12.2.0.0 now allows multiple library locations with multiple -I command line options. There is also a new fApplication.libraryPaths[] array and fApplication.addLibraryPath(), fApplication.clearLibraryPaths() and fApplication.removeLibraryPath() methods to manage the active library paths in ALD.

Simon

ps - also checkout Workspaces...