Never really understood Preferences in the system folder - it's always such
a pain when you try to move something from one machine to another. Another
thing though, why have them at all when you have some much more power and
flexibility saving information in a stack?
> From: Sivakatirswami <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 18:29:33 -1000
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Preferences--Where to Locate
>
> on 7/24/00 2:46 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] at
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
>> On a Mac, you should be writing preference files to the "Preferences"
>> folder in the system folder. You may need to use an external command to
>> have a bullet-proof method of getting the name of the system folder,
>> because hard disks on the Macintosh can have any name.
>>
>> On Windows, you should write to "C:/Windows/file" or
>> "C:/Windows/Config/file".
>>
>> Under Linux, and probably most (all?) other Unixes, you should write to
>> a hidden file in the user's home directory. Assuming Metacard honours
>> the Unix shortcut "~", you can use "~/.file" or "~/.MyApplication/file".
>> If Metacard doesn't understand "~", you might need to play around with
>> the shell() function to query the operating system for the user's home
>> directory. shell("ls -d ~") should work.
>
> For all the difficulty and cross platform issues I think I will need, given
> my skill level, to stick with writing preferences to a data folder in the
> directory containing the engine. Many mainstream applications do employ this
> strategy. For example, our primary page layout program, Quark XPress, keeps
> it Prefs and extensions in the folder with the application. This would seem
> a more bullet proof method in the long run than trying to manage a variety
> of platform scenarios. . . but, perhaps there are other issues that I am not
> aware of. If so please share those. . .our preferences would be pretty small
> since the .exe file that would need them (because it can't be saved) will be
> very small.
>
> Also, over the years we have found the system folders on people's hard
> drives, at least in our Mac world can sometimes be MORE volatile than
> applications folders, the "thirst for computing power" and trouble shooting
> system problems, (very rare now under Mac OS System 9.0 which is rock
> solid.) leads to on-going updates, reformatting hard drives, re-installing
> systems etc. While application folders go through it all unscathed, system
> prefs invariably get wiped. Any comments?
>
> Hinduism Today
>
> Sivakatirswami
> Editor's Assistant/Production Manager
> www.HinduismToday.com
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
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