Per user dirs on Non-Unix platforms (was Re: [Python-Dev] Where to install non-code files)

[Gordon McMillan]

Fred L. Drake wrote:

>   Now that this idea has fermented for a few days, I'm inclined
>   to not
> like it.  It smells of making Unix-centric interface to something
> that isn't terribly portable as a concept.

I've refrained from jumping in here (as, it seems, have all the 
Windows users) because this is a god-awful friggin' mess on 
Windows.

From the 10**3 foot view, yes, they have the concept. From 
any closer it falls apart miserably.

In practice, I think you can safely regard a Win9x box as 
single user. I do sometimes run across NT boxes that mutiple 
people use, and have separate configurations. It sort of works, 
sometimes.

But there's no $HOME as such.

There's 
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\S
hell Folders with around 16 subkeys, including AppData 
(which on my system has one entry installed by a program I've 
never used and didn't know I had). But MSOffice uses the 
Personal subkey. Others seem to use the Desktop subkey.

Still other programs will remember the per-user directories 
under HKLM\....\<program specific> with a subkey == userid.

That said, the above referenced AppData is probably the 
closest thing to a $HOME directory, despite the fact that it 
smells, tastes, acts and looks nothing like the *nix 
counterpart.

(An cmd.exe "cd" w/o arg acts like "pwd". I notice that the 
bash shell requires you to set $HOME, and won't make any 
guesses.)



- Gordon