RE: [Gcl-devel] GCL on Windows

[Page, Bill]

On December 15, 2004 3:12 AM address@hidden wrote:
>..
> The exact equivalent of the HOME environment variable is
> USERPROFILE. But there is an additional environment variable
> provided, ALLUSERSPROFILE, that allows to use the system
> as if it was single user (as most Windows users are
> accustomed to).
> ... 
> Choosing USERPROFILE as HOME corresponds to allowing the
> user more flexibility by using different usernames, as
> Unixes do. Choosing ALLUSERSPROFILE avoids the user some
> problems that can arise from multi-users environment
> (e.g; software accessible to some users but not to others).
> 
> Many commercial Windows applications use ALLUSERSPROFILE as 
> HOME, probably because this avoids the preceding problems.
> Among non-commercial applications, some (e.g. AsTeX
> distribution) use USERPROFILE as HOME because this is the 
> natural choice for multi-platform software. Some others 
> propose the choice at installation.

On December 15, 2004 3:28 AM address@hidden wrote:
> 
> On Windows NTx, the main home directory for installing 
> applications / binaries is given by the environment variable
> ProgramFiles, and the main home directory for user data 
> (e.eg. configuration files) by APPDATA, which is but default 
> USERPROFILE\Application Data. Common files are by default 
> placed in the directory contained in the environment variable
> CommonProgramFiles.

So with all these choices:

  USERPROFILE
  ALLUSERSPROFILE
  ProgramFiles
  CommonProgramFiles
  APPDATA

which of these would be the most natural choice for the
default directory when a Windows user starts GCL from Start
or a desktop icon? If they load a file, save an image or
read or write to a file that needs to be accessible to some
other application program, will it be easily accessible?

Most windows users that I know are completely unfamilar
and often confused if I show them the windows

  C:\Documents and Settings

directory since 'My Documents' is the only directory that
they see. But that directory is not among the choices
above (it is a subdirectory of $USERPROFILE I guess).

Regards,
Bill Page.