storage location for common user directories

[Joerg Barfurth]

Jamie McCracken schrieb:
> Benjamin Meyer wrote:

>> I found that in OS X they have a function (FSFindFolder) which will 
>> return the translated name of the folder for display purposes.
> 

Disclaimer: I don't know offhand whether OSX localizes the folder name 
or only the display. The latter is vastly superior IMHO (see my other 
mail).

They've had an API to retrieve the names of folders for various things 
since MacOS 7 (early 1990ies). MS Windows copied this (iirc in Win 95).

> yes but that inadequate for us cause we need to configure the paths 
> rather than hardcode them (which would cause endless arguments as I 
> stated above and int he links)
> 

Environment variables are a pain for this and don't scale too well. OSX 
now supports a long list of folder types, and distinguishing between 
physical names and localized display names doubles the count. If an API 
is defined, you can put any amount of configuration and localization 
machinery behind or you can choose a simple fixed table lookup. This can 
be a configurable or per-distro choice. In some installations system 
admins may want to restrict customization by users. On the other hand 
you may want to support automatisms like  auto-changing the 
configuration, if a users drags their document folder elsewhere (iirc 
this works in MS Windows).

Joerg

-- 
Joerg Barfurth              Sun Microsystems - Desktop - Hamburg
 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> using std::disclaimer <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Software Engineer                         joerg.barfurth at sun.com
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