[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #40444] On Windows, config & history files etc. should go to %APPDATA%

[Philip Nienhuis]

URL:
  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?40444>

                 Summary: On Windows, config & history files etc. should go to
%APPDATA%
                 Project: GNU Octave
            Submitted by: philipnienhuis
            Submitted on: Fri 01 Nov 2013 05:46:11 PM CET
                Category: None
                Severity: 2 - Minor
                Priority: 5 - Normal
              Item Group: Feature Request
                  Status: None
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: Philip Nienhuis
        Originator Email: 
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
                 Release: dev
        Operating System: Microsoft Windows

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Details:

Presently Octave writes config & history files to the "root" of the user
profile, as customary on *nix.

>From what I know, on Windows the root of the user profile is mainly used by
the system and not really intended for users or user programs (although I
haven't seen an official spec for this).
I'm not sure that the root of %USERPROFILE% is a good location at all; I
repeatedly met problems with Octave's history file there that -perhaps!
guessing...- could be related to this location (bug #40443).

On Windows systems, software settings etc. are supposed to go to
program-specific subdirs in the "Application Data" subfolder in the user
profile; it can be obtained by the environment string APPDATA.
E.g., 'getenv ("APPDATA")' on my fairly standard Win7 box gives 
'C:\Users\Philip\Application Data\Roaming\Octave'; 
On a "plain vanilla" XP box it is:
'C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data'

I think it would be better if Octave on Windows systems complies to this. 
FYI, AFAIK spaces in the path names don't matter for data files; spaces only
induce problems when appearing in path names to executables and include files
and the like. E.g., Octave happily handles scratch files in
'%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp'

See also bug #36477 where analogous requests are made for *nix systems
(freedesktop.org).





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