[Pythonmac-SIG] py2app Enforces Directory Structure?

[Bob Ippolito]

On Dec 21, 2004, at 11:39 PM, Erik Westra wrote:

>>> I don't need to
>>> include anything else in the application, as the system will store  
>>> the
>>> contents of the "data" and other directories outside of the
>>> application bundle itself.
>>
>> Don't do that.  That's bad.  Include the data and any other
>> dependencies inside the application.  Having them external and using  
>> an
>> installer is not the Mac way to do things and I'm not going to help  
>> you
>> do it.  There was a similar discussion a while ago (weeks?) and I'm  
>> not
>> going to have it again, so search the archives and argue with the past
>> if you feel strongly in the other direction :)
>
> I agree that this isn't something worth arguing about (and I wouldn't
> expect you to help me do it, either!), but I just have one comment on
> this issue: in the system I'm porting to the Mac, the "data" might
> consist of 300+ megabytes of information held in an embedded SQLite
> database, along with hundreds of configuration files and
> dynamically-loaded Python modules (downloaded automatically from a web
> site as they are required).  Our system is pretty darned complicated,
> and while I agree that it's not the Mac way of doing things, the
> architecture works well and our users really don't care much about the
> internal organisation.  This isn't an application designed for mass
> distribution, so issues like this really aren't all that important to
> us.
>
> Anyway, topic closed.  I certainly don't want to get into an argument
> about this...

I just wanted to mention that there are designated places to put files  
like that, and "relative to wherever the application might be" is Not  
That Place.  See the "Where To Put Application Files" section of `The  
Mac OS X File System`__.

.. __:  
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/ 
BPFileSystem/index.html


-bob