I've been following this discussion with great interest, since I often have need of a portable way to get these paths. If I may contribute my two cents' worth: On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:51:34 -0400 "Stewart, Robert" <Robert.Stewart@sig.com> wrote:
Christian Holmquist wrote:
Ok, I've always thought of My Documents as the HOME directory on Windows. [...] Is there a POSIX equivalent for My Documents?
Given that My Documents is nothing more than a common directory into or under which to deposit all user-produced content, it's only special in that Microsoft thought Windows users were too silly to decide for themselves where and how to organize their files. [...]
Having seen how many (non-technical) people just dump all their files on their computer's desktop, I'm afraid I have to side with Microsoft on that one. :-)
[...] os_path might not the best name, but you get the idea..
I was thinking of something similar: indicate which directory is wanted by a discriminator. [...] Given that there is no specific My Documents equivalent on POSIX systems and no specific home directory on Windows, perhaps the better approach is to have calls for those throw an exception unless the application first defines their location. [...]
You said yourself, above, that My Documents on Windows is intended to be the repository of user-generated content. (As opposed to the "USERPROFILE" directory, which is presumably for program-generated files such as configuration files.) On *NIX systems, the user's home directory, or more often a user-selected subdirectory of it, serves the same purpose. So as Bjørn Roald said in another reply, why not just return the user's home directory for the document path? -- Chad Nelson Oak Circle Software, Inc. * * *