[Python-Dev] proto-pep: plugin proposal (for unittest)

[David Bolen]

Michael Foord <fuzzyman at voidspace.org.uk> writes:

> I would be interested in hearing from other Mac users as to where they
> would look for configuration files for command line tools - in ~ or in
> ~/Library/Preferences?

My primary personal machine has been OSX for years now, and as someone
who lives in the command line (well, or Emacs shells), I think either
approach is workable for command line only tools.

I will say that if I need to find preferences or application-specific
files my first inclination is absolutely to look under ~/Library.
That's the "platform" location (just as looking for dot files under
Linux is my first choice, or "Documents and Settings/<user>" for
Windows).  I don't think I shift mental gears automatically for
command line tools versus not, unless I have some prior knowledge
about the tool.

With that said, given all the third party and Unix-oriented stuff I
install under OSX, it's hardly rare (as has been pointed out
elsewhere) to be working with ~/.<something> either, so it's not like
I'd consider it that unusual to find that's where I need to go.

In glancing at my current system, it does appear command line only
tools are more commonly using ~/.<something> files rather than under
~/Library (which tends to be stuff packaged up as an application in
/Applications, even if they can also be run from the command line).

Though it might be a biased sample set since I'm more likely to have
brought in command line tools to OSX from the Unix side of things, I
suspect that's true of other users of command line tools as well.

I will say that it's rarer to find a native (Cocoa/Carbon) GUI
application that doesn't store preferences or application settings
beneath ~/Library, and in such a case I'd feel they were more "wrong"
and non-conforming if they didn't do that.  So it depends on how
"native" an application wishes to be perceived.  I guess in thinking
about it while writing this, having something installed in
/Applications is more strongly linked with ~/Library in my mind than
other tools.

Of course, even with /Applications, non-native GUI apps are more of a
mixed bag.  For example, the X versions of Gimp and Inkscape - Gimp
properly uses "~/Library/Application Support" while Inkscape still
uses ~/.inkscape.  Of course, as X apps, neither truly feels native or
conforming anyway.

So that probably helps make things as clear as mud :-)

-- David