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It always cracks me up to see an article using phrases like "on major platforms" and just casually ignoring the existence of Microsoft Windows. The current (Vi
by jiggawatts 3y ago
It always cracks me up to see an article using phrases like "on major platforms" and just casually ignoring the existence of Microsoft Windows.
The current (Vista and later) API for obtaining the special folder locations is documented here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/known-folders https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/known-...
There is also a .NET API for this: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.environment.specialfolder?view=net-7.0 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.environm...
It annoys system administrators to no end to see applications writing their files essentially randomly all over the system.
Apps should use the roaming profile for user settings, the local app data folder for per-user cached data, the program data folder for system-wide data, etc...
- eindiran 3y agoI don't think its surprising at all that a document entitled "Dotfiles Matter" about not dumping Unix-style dotfile configuration files into a user's home directory doesn't mention an operating system that doesn't use Unix-style configuration dotfiles.
- Joker_vD 3y agoThe Windows itself may not use dotfiles (although VS Code does IIRC), but lots of stuff lazily ported to Windows, including Git for Windows, do place random dotfiles straight into %USERPROFILE%, which they arguably shouldn't.
- jiggawatts 3y agoThe linked Go library in the original article correctly places dot files in the correct Windows folder. Most of the others don’t.