Re: [AD] 5.0.0 final release plan

[Peter Wang <novalazy@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 2011-01-04, Matthew Leverton <meffer@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 7:03 AM, Peter Hull <peterhull90@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > OSX has an API to get these locations (as used in the current code)
> >
> > Would it be possible under linux to detect if an exe is 'installed'
> > and look in the corresponding place and if not look relative to the
> > exe
> >
> I think all of us participating in this discussion are basically in
> agreement for 5.0 to just not include any paths that represent shared
> (writable) or installed (readable) data. I don't think it's something
> we should rush to fit in, because given that they aren't that useful
> to the average Allegro app, it's worse to implement them incorrectly
> than to not do them at all.
> 
> In 5.0, if somebody wants to write a cross platform way to handle
> installed data, then they can just do this in their code:
> --
> string get_etc_path(string path)
> {
> #ifdef LINUX
>   return ETC_PATH + path;
> #else
>   return al_get_standard_path(ALLEGRO_BUNDLED_DATA_PATH) + path;
> #endif
> }
> al_open_config(get_etc_path("foo.ini"));
> --
> 
> Psuedo-code, obviously. The point is, under LInux, they could hard
> code some ETC_PATH during the build process. On OS X and Windows, they
> could just use some bundled data path. Or whatever... The main thing
> is that it's hard for Allegro to actually support this correctly
> without mandating that you install things in a certain location.
> Otherwise, you'd either have to set an ETC_PATH of sorts during the
> build process, or set an APP_NAME and ORG_NAME at compile time that
> reflects where the program was installed. But I think it's simpler to
> just do nothing.

Nearly all Allegro programs I will run in-place, never installing.
BUNDLED_DATA works then.

It is also pretty common nowadays (if not great form) for application
programs, especially games, to keep all their data in a single
directory, with only a symlink or shell script in /usr/bin.  For
BUNDLED_DATA, a shell script would be required (unless we resolve the
symlink, which seems like it might cause confusion).

> 
> The previous message I sent with three numbered things to do is
> sufficient to address the current problems:
> 
> >> 1) Rename PROGRAM_PATH to BUNDLED_DATA, and on OS X, dynamically
> >> detect if in an app bundle, and adjust accordingly.
> >> 2) Remove SYSTEM_DATA_PATH and SYSTEM_SETTINGS_PATH.
> >> 3) Make USER_HOME consistent, and add USER_DOCUMENTS

Sounds fine to me.

Peter