bazaar.conf - decisions: for Windows

[Alexander Belchenko]

David Allouche wrote:
 > On Mon, 2005-10-10 at 23:14 -0400, Kevin Smith wrote:
 >
 >>John A Meinel wrote:
 >>
 >>>>Robert Collins wrote:
 >>>>
>>>>Since this isn't an absolute path, what is it relative to? Your home
>>>>directory? On windows, you don't really have the same concept (I know I
>>>>usually work in H:/dev/...
>>>>Though my $HOME would be C:/Documents and Settings/jameinel/
>>
>>Under MS Windows, Java maps the user home directory to the user's "My 
>>Documents" directory, which tends to work pretty well.

I don't think this is good idea.

> I have played a bit with Wine this week-end, and it appears that the
> home directory is defined on win32 by a registry key.
> 
> Something like "Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\
> \User Shell Folders\\Personal".

No. It pointed to current "My Documents" folder but not to user home 
directory.

> I'm a win32 illiterate, so you should definitely wait for confirmation
> from somebody who knows what he's talking about, but I thought a heads
> up would be useful.

If bzr developers wish to use "My Documents" folder as home directory 
for Windows it must be deliberate decision and it should be mentioned in 
README for Windows users. Usually "My Documents" not used as place to 
store application-specific data, though it can be useful because of 
simply access to this folder for dummy users. Is bzr users will be so 
dummy so they cannot find "C:\Documents and Settings\username\" 
directory by hand or with FAR/Total Commander? I think -- not. But I'm 
not truth in the ultimate authority.

There is BUG report in Python BUG Tracker, posted in 2003 by GvR:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=796219&group_id=5470&atid=105470

There is patch for this bug #957650:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=957650&group_id=5470&atid=305470

But this patch not merged into mainline python distribution.

I use ideas from this patch in my bzrlib/winutils.py module for 
determining user's home directory (see my recent patches for Windows).

BTW, here is stat from my working and home computer:

* GIMP use "C:\Documents and Settings\username\.gimp-2.2\" directory for 
storing their data;
* All serious native windows application store their data in 
"C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\" (per example, 
Adobe Acrobat, Mozilla Firefox & Thunderbird). But this directory is 
marked as hidden, so it is not intended for manual use, so it is *bad* 
idea to put .bazaar.conf here;
* All python programs that have been ported from *nix to windows and use 
~/.*conf path sometimes place their stuff in C:\* dirctory. It rely on 
current definition of $HOME, $HOMEDRIVE, $HOMEDIR environment variables, 
and sometimes it s wrong decision. It is *wrong*, but at least idle, 
boa-constructor, ipython, (and at this moment bzr.dev) does that.

I think it will be a good idea to create special utility that will help 
to Windows users change options and settings for bzr via GUI interface 
(as most typical windows way). I also think this utility may have 
ability to install and uninstall plugins for bzr in appropriate 
directory. This utility should "know" by itself where must be 
.bazaar.conf placed without user intervention.

Alexander.