Re: xdg-user-dirs – purpose?

[Jehan Pagès]

Hi,

On Thu, Nov 9, 2017 at 3:10 PM, Thomas U. Grüttmüller <sloyment at gmx.net> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I could not find within the documentation of xdg-user-dirs anything about
> the *purpose* of these directories. For some dirs, their purpose is obvious,
> for others not.

As far as I know, there is no reference spec indeed, except the code
from xdg-user-dirs tool.

>            DESKTOP
>
> *Some* file managers display this folder in the root window. Others, e.g.
> ROX, don’t.

Some desktops (i.e. GNOME) don't even use this folder anymore since
they don't have a desktop anymore (except through plug-ins). I don't
regret it. That was just a place to put everything as a mess.
Though some people appreciate the concept to have ongoing projects for
instance visible in front of them all the time. I guess it's all a
matter of organization choices.

>            TEMPLATES
>
> This looks very useful. You can put file templates there. Each of them will
> generate a menu item in the file manager like “New HTML file…”.

I personally never use it, but that's indeed how it is to be used AFAIK.

>            DOWNLOAD
>
> This folder is a dump where the web browser will put all sorts of downloaded
> files. After a short time there will be total chaos. :-(

True. One of the first thing I configure in a browser is to ask me
where to download files every time. I don't want all in some random
place where I'll have to move files out after anyway. But well, I
guess some people may like it otherwise. Then it could as well be a
dedicated folder indeed.
So basically I don't really use this one.

>            PUBLICSHARE
>
> This looks interesting. Has it ever been implemented? It reminds me of the
> public_html folder found in older distributions.

This is used in GNOME for instance and made very easy to use in
Natilus (i.e. GNOME Files). When you go inside ~/Public/, you get some
"Sharing Settings" buttons to enable sharing. I use it often to share
files in the local network.

>            DOCUMENTS
>
> The purpose is not obvious.


Well. "Documents" feels quite obvious to me. This is to save all kind
of "documents". :P
It is quite a generic term and I actually use it this way. Personally
my Documents/ folder is very organized with many sub-folders per
topic. Apart from some very specific files (music, videos…), most of
my files go in a subfolder of Documents/. I basically use it quite
similarly to how most people use $HOME. This allows my $HOME to stay
quite clean in the end.

> Gimp uses it as a default to save pictures; Anki
> uses it to store its configuration files…

There have been many discussions on the best default folder in GIMP.
The main problem is that anyway people would likely have to change
their save folder anyway. Personally I have a few bookmarks for the
most common roots under which I will repeatitively save or load
things. So it doesn't matter much what is the default folder.
But in the end, there are no perfect choice since it will all depend
on each individual organization. So Documents feels as good as
another.

>            MUSIC
>            PICTURES
>            VIDEOS
>
> No program seems to use these folders. Their purpose is not obvious to me.

That's funny. These are the 3 folders which are the most obvious to me
in the whole list! I mean, their names are pretty self-explanatory,
no?
As for I, I use them to store what their name say: music, pictures and
videos. Also I am pretty sure they are commonly used by various
software.

Jehan

> Greetings,
> Thomas
> _______________________________________________
> xdg mailing list
> xdg at lists.freedesktop.org
> https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xdg



-- 
ZeMarmot open animation film
http://film.zemarmot.net
Patreon: https://patreon.com/zemarmot
Tipeee: https://www.tipeee.com/zemarmot