Re: mplayer (Message sign� : )

[Thomas Kluyver]

On 3 December 2012 00:18, David Nečas <yeti at physics.muni.cz> wrote:

> but according to it the same file belongs to different places, depending
> on how the user have come to its possession: If the user wrote a script
> himself, he will be crying if it is deleted.  So it must go to
> XDG_DATA_HOME.  But if exactly the same script is installed as an
> extension it should go to XDG_CONFIG_HOME.  So directories must be
> duplicated between XDG_DATA_HOME and XDG_CONFIG_HOME.  Which means
> people will put their scripts to one or another randomly (you cannot
> really stop them if both work) defeating the distinction.
>
> What if the user installs an extension and, later, decides to modify it?
> Does he have to move it from XDG_CONFIG_HOME to XDG_DATA_HOME because it
> becomes valuable now?


I think this is making a mountain out of a molehill. Of course there are
things that don't fit neatly into the categories - that's a problem common
to almost any categorisation. It doesn't mean the categories themselves are
worthless. You have to make some decisions about where things go, and other
people might disagree with those decisions.

In these cases, I would personally decide:

For your scripts: if the scripts are the main focus of the program (e.g.
it's some kind of IDE), they are data. If they are extensions for something
like a media player, they are config - and should the user write their own,
it's up to them to ensure it's saved elsewhere, in a VCS, on a plugins
site, or whatever.

>From the mplayer bug, I would say skins are config - losing them would be
an annoyance, not a disaster. I'm not sure about the 'registry', but I'd be
inclined to put it under data.

Best wishes,
Thomas
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