[Python-Dev] [Python-3000] Reminder: last alphas next Wednesday 07-May-2008 (original) (raw)

Alec Thomas alec at swapoff.org
Tue May 6 17:11:57 CEST 2008

2008/5/7 <skip at pobox.com>:

Alec> FWIW my vote is for ~/.python. ~/.local comes in a distant second Alec> due to non-obviousness and ~/Python is several light years beyond Alec> that. I guess we're going to have to agree to disagree. I find hiding directories which contain executable code extremely non-obvious. Would you prefer

Python would not be unique. Mozilla/Firefox does exactly this, putting per-user plugins in ~/.mozilla.

/usr/.local to /usr/local? If not, then why prefer ~/.local to ~/local?

Because unlike a home directory, users don't frequently perform directory listings or tab completion of /usr/. For a frequently used personal directory one wants the minimum of noise.

Also:

  1. If every application followed the convention of creating non-hidden paths in home directories the directory listing would be incredibly noisy. To illustrate, I have 160 dotfiles, most of which were created by applications. I have only 8 non-hidden directories, all of which I have created myself.
  2. Non-hidden directories interfere with tab completion muscle memory.
  3. On a more subjective note, home directories are personal space. People shape them to their personality, and interfering with this is impolite.
  4. Per-application dotfiles have 30 years of convention behind them. Conversely, only a few applications use ~/.local (for example, Openbox and Audacious both look for configuration here) and none that I'm aware of default to ~/local.
  5. Applications that create non-hidden directories in user home directories are generally perceived as being obnoxious.

-- Evolution: Taking care of those too stupid to take care of themselves.

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