On Wed, 02 May 2007 11:15:01 -0700, Sadhunathan Nadesan wrote: > For example, in our case, we are providing a download of an > executable for windows users which installs as normal in the program > files directory. (Mac version, not sure where it goes). However, a > separate stack that can be written to is obscurely (some might say) > squirreled away in a special folder - which turns out to be different > on different versions of windoz. For example, its under all > users/application data (or something like that) on XP home and pro, > and something like c:/ProgramData on Vista basic (at least mine). > The mac I'm not sure. Our code has a case statement to detect the > type of OS and pick the right special folder. > Why wouldn't we just put this stack in the same folder where we > install the executable?
Well, basically the issue is one of access rights; in a "personal" installation of Mac OS X or Windows, usually since there's only one user, it's likely that they will either be granted or grant themselves administration rights. In this case, it doesn't matter where you install the stack, since they'll have access anywhere. However, in a "corporate" installation of Mac OS X or Windows, users are generally granted more limited rights (can only read files from certain directories, etc.). This becomes even more pronounced in Vista, btw. So if you installed a stack in the Program Files folder right next to the executable in Windows, and the user had limited rights, it is very likely that any changes made to that stack could not be saved (since the files would be read-only for that user). There are a lot more examples, but you get the idea. So to develop for the widest possible distribution, you want to accommodate users of all levels, so the guidelines say that you should: - Put the executable file in the Applications/Program Files/etc. folder - Put files that the application uses, that usually won't be modified or need to be accessed by multiple users, and likely should not be seen (or not seen very often) by end users in an Application Support/Application Data/etc. folder - Put files that *do* change, are user-specific, or hold user-generated data in the user's Documents/My Documents folder It is therefore useful to use the specialFolderPath() function instead of hardcoding paths - especially when it comes to other languages. Although I don't know this for sure, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that certain folders are named differently in other localized OSes. Hope this helps, Ken Ray Sons of Thunder Software, Inc. Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web Site: http://www.sonsothunder.com/ _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution