Re: Texinfo 7.0 changed the name of HTML output directory

[Patrice Dumas]

On Mon, Aug 26, 2024 at 09:10:44PM +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > I have not seen anything platform specific in the specification, as far
> > as I can tell (except for the path separator), no more than what we
> > currently do.
> 
> The directories that are the default values of the various XDG
> locations do not necessarily exist (or even make sense) on other
> systems. 

Maybe, but so do the directories we currently use, they are basically
the same base directories, the differences are the subdirectories only.

>  And system utilities and services do not recognize them, so,
> for example, the cache directory is not cleaned up from time to time.

I see.  For now for our use this is not relevant as we only need to find
config/data files.

> > But that means that you support forever two locations, the traditional
> > places, and the XDG-mandated locations if variables are not set.  I
> > wanted to support only one, the XDG-mandated locations if variables are
> > not set and deprecate the traditional locations (and use the XDG
> > environment variables if set, but there is no trade-off with that case).
> 
> I understand the desire, but I don't think it's practical to make such
> abrupt changes in user-facing facilities.

It is not so abrupt, we'll have a message saying which directory should
be used for a long period of time (I proposed 5 years).

> But yes, most of the burden related to this complication is on the
> Emacs developers, not on users.

Being that those directories should not be used a lot to begin with,
having a transitory period instead of both systems forever seems
preferable to me.  We can always change our mind if we get users
complaints.

-- 
Pat