maybe we do need some kind of registry, tree based key-value with an API for access.
Dotfile madness
381–390 of 534 posts
Re: Dotfile madness
#382Earlier quoted context omitted.
On Windows Golang defaults to install to C:\. Had no problems running it from Program Files instead. It's crazy that a new programming language cannot follow decades-old conventions!
Python did this until very recently too. Windows has a problem, because people expect to use those programs in the command line and the %PATH% has a size limit and is a bit difficult to set-up properly.
I always thought it was because that space in “Program Files” was troublesome for a lot of programs, particularly command-line ones. IIRC, older versions of MinGW for instance would simply not work at all if installed in a path containing a space, because some of their startup scripts didn’t properly quote all parts of the path.
Re: Dotfile madness
#383You're never going to be able to stop developers dumping their shit in ~/. The best you can do is create your own directory like ~/Data to put your stuff in. Since programs don't already know about it, it will stay clean.
Re: Dotfile madness
#384I agree. If I hit ‘Ctrl-H’ my lovely, clean Nautilus File Manager becomes a heinous, ugly clutter which is impossible to navigate. I’ve tried to delete some or move others to no avail. Please follow this standard. It’s clean, organized, and beautiful. Once done, we can then tackle the next problem (I’m looking at you & Snaps Shuttleworth!).
Re: Dotfile madness
#385Earlier quoted context omitted.
At this point the right solution is to just not allow applications to choose. Give each their own view of the file hierarchy but keep all the crap they spew out in a location obviously related to them from the user's view of the file hierarchy.
While this cleans up the file hierarchy, it absolutely destroys any interoperability between programs. If a program cannot output files that other programs can see, then it cannot output files that other programs can use as input. Between having a messier file hierarchy on the one hand, and not being able to open a Microsoft Word document outside of Microsoft Word, the former is by far the lesser evil.
Using the filesystem for primitive “interoperability between programs” is increasingly recognized as a serious security problem. As someone else in this thread pointed out, a video game can access their tax returns.
Re: Dotfile madness
#386Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always add C:\U to my Path and store all standalone executable programs to C:\U I also have C:\CMD for my own batch files. Every single program should be fully contained in its own directory including all the settings,logging,configuration etc... No touching of any common resource or repository. It should be enough to delete single tree to fully uninstall program with all the garbage it created along the way
Most people like to separatly store data and executables for good reasons.
\Programs\VendorX\ProgramY\data
\Programs\VendorX\ProgramY\code
Re: Dotfile madness
#387Earlier quoted context omitted.
As noted below there's a special folder called "Saved Games" that's specifically meant for this purpose. A lot of games still don't use it.
And here I am, still wanting my save files to reside next to the games exe...
Do you also store your birth certificate in your car's glovebox?
Re: Dotfile madness
#388To me, the real problem is not the dotfiles, but the regular (i.e. non-hidden) files that applications surreptitiously create in my home folder. (Which the author does mention as being particularly bad.) dotfiles in the home folder are not a new thing on Linux (e.g. .bashrc, .profile, .emacs, etc.), even if it would be better if more applications used the XDG folders. And if I don't see them when I "ls", they don't b…
This is particularly weird, since click (snap's "predecessor" at Canonical/Ubuntu) was fully XDG compliant, even encouraging developers to separate data from cache etc. (unlike flatpak which just dumps everything in ~/.local/share/[...], though that is still infinitely better than using ~/snap).
I just use 'exa' with --ignore-glob option to filter out unnecessary folders as 'ls' replacement and things are clean.
It also has an option to ignore entries listed in your .gitignore.
Re: Dotfile madness
#389To me, the real problem is not the dotfiles, but the regular (i.e. non-hidden) files that applications surreptitiously create in my home folder. (Which the author does mention as being particularly bad.) dotfiles in the home folder are not a new thing on Linux (e.g. .bashrc, .profile, .emacs, etc.), even if it would be better if more applications used the XDG folders. And if I don't see them when I "ls", they don't b…
This strongly reminds me of installing software on Windows, where most games and programs would use My Documents as a dumping ground.
That's why I just let them be and create 'Data' folder at the drive's root where no one will taint and to keep the way I want organized.
Re: Dotfile madness
#390I hate dotfiles, simply because it's not programming. It's configuration.