[Python-Dev] Fixing #7175: a standard location for Python config files

[Tim Golden]

On 12/08/2010 11:40, Michael Foord wrote:
> User editable configuration files are very different from libraries. The
> per user site-packages folder *should* be hidden somewhere out of the
> way where you can get at them if you want them but won't stumble across
> them all the time. e.g. AppData on Windows.
>
> For files we expect the user to be able to edit we shouldn't go out of
> our way to make them hard or inconvenient to find.

This really comes down -- as with the Mac discussion last week, I
think -- to the tension between standard file locations and easy-to-get-to.
The difference on Windows, though, is that while on Mac it's either:
Apple standard /This/That/TheOther vs Unix standard $HOME/.something
on Windows it's %APPDATA%\myprog vs whatever-I-thought-of-at-the-time.

APPDATA isn't actually that hard to get to on any version of Windows
post 2000. (Just stick %APPDATA% into any Explorer window -- even
IE, for goodness sake). Even from the command line it's not hard:

notepad "%APPDATA%\python\python26\idle.ini"

Ultimately, as a Windows user/developer, I'd vote for a memorable
consistency, which for me would be %APPDATA%\python\... If everything's
in one place, I'll just create a shortcut / hardlink / whatever to get
me there when I want to change things.

TJG