Paths in the default mame config file

[Emmanuel Kasper <emmanuel@libera.cc>]

> Am 2012-10-30 19:39, schrieb Jordi Mallach:
>> -inipath                  $HOME/.mame;/etc/mame
>> +inipath                  $HOME/mame;/etc/mame
>>
>> totally looks wrong to me.
>>
> Sorry, but I can't see why, could you please explain? :)
> 
> I thought we had agreed on moving per-user settings from a dot directory
> to a visible one, and this is what I have done in that commit.
> 
> I see no reason to clutter the user directory with other subdirs or
> additional hidden files, so ~/mame/ should contain both personal data
> and settings IMO.
> 
> Cheers,
> Cesare.
> 
> 
> 
> 

Dear Debian Devel Games mailing list

Due to difference of meanings about which paths the default config file
of the mame program shoud have, this discussion has moved here.

I would like to propose the configuration from
http://lite.framapad.org/p/yxU1G0GEDM (version 13) to be used.
Note: We talk here about a Debian provided confg file that the user can
later edit.

Here is my rational:

We have three kinds of data needed by the mame program:

A is an optional user-supplied configuration file.

B are the ROMS and other ressources (artwork,cheat files) needed for the
program to be useful. These files *need* to be provided by the user.

C are for instance saved games data. These files are autogenerated by
mame itself without user intervention.

Considering the "Unix Tradition" and the way Gnome does stuff:

A is always a dot file either ine the form of .myfoorc or .myfoo/myfoorc [1]

B can be different from program to program.
However expecting users to provide this stuff to a .myfoo directory is
contra productive IMHO  since this directory is hidden by default from
file managers in the Desktop Environnment we provide.

C is almost always in a .myfoo directory ( examples I think of:
Thunderbird, Pidgin, Empathy mails and chat logs)

My conclusion is that the mame programm should use:

.mame/mame.ini for A
mame/ for B
.mame/ for C

yes it means creating two different directories. But considering the way
Gnome works I don't find it bad.

The first time you log in Gnome you get automatically a Document/, a
Music/ a Downloads/ created in your $HOME directory which will we used
as default search paths for Gnome Programms (IIRC)
Stuff created by Gnome itself that a normal user should not tamper is
stored in .private or .gconf (IIRC again)
People have been happy with that so far.

If you've been here so far, thank you for your time, and sorry for the
bikeshedding !


Manu

[1] This coming from a side effect of a very old programming shortcut:
see https://plus.google.com/u/0/101960720994009339267/posts/R58WgWwN9jp