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> As a software author, they are "my files" as long as I am responsible for them. As a software author, you are only responsible for those files insofar as the
by ghoward 5y ago
> As a software author, they are "my files" as long as I am responsible for them.
As a software author, you are only responsible for those files insofar as the user allows you to be. The user still owns those files and can do whatever they want with them.
If they have damaged the files your software uses, that's on them, not you; you are not responsible for that, unless it was your software that did it.
Also, it should be pretty simple for a piece of software to tell the user why it can't open a file it needs to open, including a damaged header, a wrong suffix or filename, or a file not being in the correct directory. If the user caused the problem, telling them the problem should make it easy for them to fix it.
In addition to that, if software does not have flexibility in where they put files (such as using environment variables), I would argue that that rigidity does, in fact, impinge on user freedom.
- auggierose 5y ago> If the user caused the problem, telling them the problem should make it easy for them to fix it. Ever shipped consumer software?
- ghoward 5y agoWhat's your point? Consumers still own their files. Claiming that consumer-oriented software should "own" the files created by the software is the same as claiming that consumers are too stupid for their own good. Personally, I would not want to use software made by a company that believes that.
- auggierose 5y agoApparently not. I am not against files, actually, I am a big proponent of files. But your statement I quoted is just naive.
- ghoward 5y agoNo, I have not shipped any, but I've used plenty, and I hate how such software treats users. Also, I said that it should make it easy, which I understood to mean that there will still be some people for whom it won't help because they simply don't know how or what they did that destroyed their files.