Rob Pike: the origin of dotfiles

#1

Post by keyist » Fri, Aug 03, 2012, 12:35 AM UTC

Rob Pike: the origin of dotfiles
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Re: Rob Pike: the origin of dotfiles

#2

Post by keyist » Fri, Aug 03, 2012, 1:08 AM UTC

Instead of putting a dotfile or dotdir in the user's home directory, do follow the XDG Base Directory specification: http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-l... .

It's easy to understand and requires only a marginal increase in effort/code.

Re: Rob Pike: the origin of dotfiles

#3

Post by tyrmored » Fri, Aug 03, 2012, 1:44 AM UTC

This is a problem that libetc is supposed to help solve: http://ordiluc.net/fs/libetc/

Re: Rob Pike: the origin of dotfiles

#4

Post by malkia » Fri, Aug 03, 2012, 1:45 AM UTC

tyrmored wrote: post #3

This is a problem that libetc is supposed to help solve: http://ordiluc.net/fs/libetc/

It also begs the question, why it was named "etc" :)

Re: Rob Pike: the origin of dotfiles

#5

Post by skeletonjelly » Fri, Aug 03, 2012, 1:47 AM UTC

If not dot files lazy programmers would have just found another way. Just look at the results of lazy programmers on any Android SD card.

Re: Rob Pike: the origin of dotfiles

#6

Post by seanalltogether » Fri, Aug 03, 2012, 1:47 AM UTC

For those who object that dot files serve a purpose, I don't dispute that but counter that it's the files that serve the purpose, not the convention for their names.

I would like to hear a good argument for why hidden files and folders are a good thing.

Re: Rob Pike: the origin of dotfiles

#7

Post by napum » Fri, Aug 03, 2012, 1:53 AM UTC

malkia wrote: post #4

tyrmored wrote: post #3

This is a problem that libetc is supposed to help solve: http://ordiluc.net/fs/libetc/

It also begs the question, why it was named "etc" :)

I'm guessing it's because /etc contains configuration files and dot-files are just configuration files. Or do you mean, why was /etc named etc?

Re: Rob Pike: the origin of dotfiles

#8

Post by oofabz » Fri, Aug 03, 2012, 2:07 AM UTC

keyist wrote: post #2

Instead of putting a dotfile or dotdir in the user's home directory, do follow the XDG Base Directory specification: http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-l... . It's easy to understand and requires only a marginal increase in effort/code.

I am always pleasantly surprised when programs follow XDG. One notable example is the fish shell. Most shells put dotfiles in $HOME, like .bash_profile or .zshrc. Fish puts everything in .config/fish/.

Re: Rob Pike: the origin of dotfiles

#9

Post by spitfire » Fri, Aug 03, 2012, 2:08 AM UTC

malkia wrote: post #4

tyrmored wrote: post #3

This is a problem that libetc is supposed to help solve: http://ordiluc.net/fs/libetc/

It also begs the question, why it was named "etc" :)

You can ask this question for most of unix. Why /etc? Why /bin and /usr/bin? (Answer: At one time hard disks were very small and crashed a lot), why do we presume screens are black and white, etc, etc.

Try to change any of it though, and a lot of luddites will come out screaming bloody murder. It's just not UNIX if it makes sense.

Re: Rob Pike: the origin of dotfiles

#10

Post by noibl » Fri, Aug 03, 2012, 2:10 AM UTC

malkia wrote: post #4

tyrmored wrote: post #3

This is a problem that libetc is supposed to help solve: http://ordiluc.net/fs/libetc/

It also begs the question, why it was named "etc" :)

Maybe the alternative was "..." :)