Home directory problem

[Mike C. Fletcher]

This is the kind of thing that should really be in a module in the 
standard library, with lots of testing/collaboration establishing a 
robust solution.  I don't really have time to build such a thing, but 
here's a start that might help someone else work it up (attached). 

Notes:
     On Win32 you're not supposed to dump data into the user's 
profile/home directory, you're supposed to use a sub-directory in the 
AppData directory (or the Local App Data directory for non-roaming apps). 
    I haven't tested the module on Linux, but it's pretty simplistic on 
that side. 
    I'd rather see the seperate mechanisms for finding directories 
broken out into seperate functions for easier testing/verification/reuse. 
    There should really be mechanisms for retrieving the other 
shell-folder types (e.g. ttf font directories, profile directories, 
desktop directories, menu directories, in other words, a cross-platform 
version of Win32's SHGetFolderPath would be nice :) .

Oh well, it's a quick hack, you get what you pay for :) .

HTH,
Mike

Nagy László Zsolt wrote:

> Hi All! I wonder if there is a standard way to determine a user's 
> local directory. I know that unix compatible machines has an 
> enviroment variable called 'HOME'. Windows 2000 and XP machines have 
> an enviroment variable called 'HOMEPATH'. But I don't know how to read 
> this on Win9X, Mac and the possible others. Is there a standard way? 
> Some details: I'm writting a multi platform two-tiered source code 
> management tool. The clients need to store some information locally. 
> This information must be separated from other users. I'm using dumbdbm 
> and I'm searching the right place for the config database. Any ideas? 
> Thanks in advance.
>
>  Laci 1.0

_______________________________________
  Mike C. Fletcher
  Designer, VR Plumber, Coder
  http://members.rogers.com/mcfletch/


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