Oh yeah, I forgot there's actually people out there that share their computer with other people.
I guess it makes sense in that way, but in another way it also adds more clutter, especially for people who don't share their computer with anyone else.
Oh yeah, I forgot there's actually people out there that share their computer with other people.
I guess it makes sense in that way, but in another way it also adds more clutter, especially for people who don't share their computer with anyone else.
"I am probably the laziest programmer on the planet, a fact with which anyone who has ever seen my code will agree." - esbo, 11/15/2008
"the internet is a scary place to be thats why i dont use it much." - billet, 03/17/2010
Oh, and if you keep application settings right next to application executables, backups become either really tricky or really large.
All the buzzt!
CornedBee
"There is not now, nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be, any programming language in which it is the least bit difficult to write bad code."
- Flon's Law
> Oh, and if you keep application settings right next to application executables, backups become either really tricky or really large.
One of the reasons they moved away from that idea perhaps?
Made me sad, makes things a tad harder to program
Well, maybe.Originally Posted by idelovski
... like back it up?
Sorry - couldn't resist!
There should definitely be tools to backup application settings, to make users aware.
Indeed, tools to backup the entire profile would be a good idea.
That's why you only backup files that have changed for Incremental Backups.Oh, and if you keep application settings right next to application executables, backups become either really tricky or really large.
I use an external hard drive for backups and it takes about 5-10 mins to do a total backup of my entire system >200GB.
I'd rather restore the system from a complete backup rather than reinstall all the software, then restore the data from backup and hope you didn't forget to backup anything important.
"I am probably the laziest programmer on the planet, a fact with which anyone who has ever seen my code will agree." - esbo, 11/15/2008
"the internet is a scary place to be thats why i dont use it much." - billet, 03/17/2010
But full backups tend to up a lot of space, so you would do it every month or so.
But backing up app data takes up little to no space, so you could do it regularly.
And typically, it wouldn't matter if they were next to the apps or not - since you would (hopefully) do a full system partition backup.
In the end it seems there isn't much I can do. So I came to a conclusion that maybe I can
put a checkbox somewhere in my application that tells it to keep a copy of settings file in
My Documents too.
Default would stay as it is today, preferences are kept in Application Data, but if someone
wishes, application can always create a copy in My Documents.
So, a day comes and the file in Application Data is lost. My application is about to create
new, default file in Application Data, but it checks first if maybe there is a copy in My
Documents. If there is, then that copy is used and from there everything resumes as before.
The thing is, few months ago there was a guy who lectured me about Windows platform best
practices and told me that he never heard about Application Data, but on Windows "everything
important is kept in My Documents" so I should learn to use that folder. I said "Yeah, yeah" to
him, but now his arrogant ignorance gave me idea. To people like him I can just say that in
some pref panel there is a check box and now everything will be kept in My Docs and every-
thing's fine and happy ever after and so on.
This should be like perfect solution until Microsoft finds a better place for Application Data.
Microsoft doesn't need to. The application data folder is ideal.
People are ignorant and will always be, so this issue will continue always and forever.
My documents are so littered with all sorts of crap where I usually am supposed to keep... that's right - documents!!!
People aren't automatically ignorant because they don't want to take the time to master a file-system. What's wrong with you pseudo-intellectual types. You know, technically I was directed by my professor to create several new directories at the top level of the C: drive, and I didn't. From what I've seen, people typically order things when they will have longevity or things of weighty importance to them.
Last edited by whiteflags; 11-29-2008 at 11:46 AM. Reason: Needed emphasis, sorry
Lots of people are ignorant. And being ignorant is fine, because we do not have to know the inner workings of something to use it. So in many areas we are ignorant, yet we still use it and the purpose of many things is to make it usable by ignorant people.
What people need to do is use a backup tool that knows what it's doing.
