Re: [Ayatana] XDG Base Directory spec

[Martin Owens <doctormo@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hey Ted,

I'm a BIG fan of XDG Base Directories specification.

On Thu, 2010-03-25 at 16:30 -0500, Ted Gould wrote:
> I guess what I think we should look at here is why they're not
> adopting it. 

I've recently been talking to the python xdg maintainer because he has
no time to continue development, and I should have commit access now to
the git repository on freedesktop.org for this module.

My main aim is to increase uptake of the specification by making the API
at least in python as simple as possible. I'll also be adding a couple
of missing parts of the specification including the data dirs and
this .local directory.

This way we can have some python snippets in acair and hopefully push
smaller projects towards supporting the specification in full.

> I know when we made the switch for Inkscape one of the larger
> issues was the migration of data and settings.  I think that this is
> an
> issue that we have as a larger context in the distro as well.  The
> package hooks that we've used are a bit fragile. 

It's certainly easier to start a new project using XDG than to migrate a
legacy set of configurations over.

I generally check for the new config if not found then check for legacy
config and move it to the new config location. Keep that around for 2
versions afterwards and then depreciate.

The whole "Non-configuration" data thing is a little unclear, I've never
seen a good definition for any of the classes of data (although in my
mind I can think of about 8) where to put them in the system and user
cases and how ephemeral the data is.

Maybe I could write a blog documenting my thoughts if I can put together
a good list.

Martin,