Re: [AD] 5.0.0 final release plan

[Matthew Leverton <meffer@xxxxxxxxxx>]

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.

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

> What's the difference between 'settings' and 'data'? (Sorry if I missed it earlier)
>
In Linux terms, I think settings is /etc and data is /usr/share.

--
Matthew Leverton