🚀 go-pugleaf

jayson@asw.com (Jayson Adams) writes:
>I think this is exactly the problem Sam is talking about.  Why would  
>someone in expert mode want to see a bunch of %$&# dot files in their home  
>folder?  Sam has the right idea:  create the folder ~/Library/AppName and  
>place whatever crud your app needs to run in there.  A dot file in a  
>user's Library folder is at least better than a dot file in a home folder  
>(most people don't go to their Library folders very much, but they do go  
>to their home a hell of a lot).
 
Why not let the user decide?  Imo, the only thing worse than seeing new
dot files appear in my home directory is seeing new directories
(like Library/foo) appear.  I'd like to be able to decide to put
all these NeXT configuration things into ~/NeXT/Configs, or whatever.
 
It seems like this would be possible to do using the the NeXT defaults.
If there were a global default named (for example) NXConfigDir that apps
could read to find out where to dump their files, then users could
modify it to suit their tastes (either using dwrite or a modified 
Preferences).
 
If a central default is too much to hope for, then applications, or 
groups of applications, could do this themselves.  For example, instead
of using .RightBrain, there could be a default named RightBrainDirectory 
that all RightBrain software could access.  Presumably this would
accessible via the Preferences panel in each app.
 
Not having actually tried this, I'm not sure if it's possible, but
it does seem like the right approach.
 
 -r'm
 
...........................................................................
Re'my Evard     remy@cs.uoregon.edu      Systems Staff & Research Assistant