On 3/15/2006 4:51 AM, "John C. Welch" wrote: > Actually, when I'm dealing with a crashed drive, I care FAR less about > ~/Library/Application Support/ and far MORE about ~/Documents, because > ~/Documents is *where the work is*. Application Support can be recreated at > will, and should not hold user work. That is what the E'rage database > is...User work.
This isn't really true, John. According to Apple's developer guidelines, ~/Documents is for files/folders the user creates directly, whereas ~/Library/Application Support contains support files *and* data created indirectly. For example, many apps that act as "databases" store all their data -- properly -- in Application Support. The contents of Application Support are certainly not all stuff that can be "recreated at will." (Yes, I know that Apple breaks its own guidelines by placing Safari and Mail folders in ~/Library, when they should go in ~/Library/Application Support, but that's a different issue ;-) We both know that Apple has always broken its own developer guidelines; that's not a good reason for everyone else to do it, too.) I think the bigger point here is that any backup worth anything should include both ~/Documents *and* ~/Library. There's simply too much important stuff in ~/Library not to back it up, too. >> Migrating to the "proper" behavior wouldn't have to be problematic. As >> someone else suggested, the Office apps might first look to >> ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft, and if it doesn't find the >> appropriate data, then look to the legacy location of ~/Documents/Microsoft >> User Data. > > Why would you think that will stop this? > > I'll tell you categorically, at best it will slow it down SLIGHTLY, and this > coming from someone who spend three days a month every month for YEARS in > the 90s restoring drives because people deleted their DOS directory. > > Why? > > "I don't use anything in there" > > "But I told you the last time you did this that you can't do this, because > without it, your computer can't work" > > "oh, I forgot" > > So if you think for an instant that changing the location of the MUD folder > is going to make this problem go away, you're overly optimistic. I actually wasn't making the claim that this would "fix" anything ;-) I was just pointing out that the correct place for the MUD folder to reside, according to developer guidelines, is in Application Support. That said, in my experience, I think far fewer people venture into Application Support and randomly delete things than do the same in Documents. To many people, the Library folder is still a mysterious thing, whereas the Documents folder is "my stuff, so I can do what I want in here." -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
