[Scummvm-devel] different default savepath for *nix

[M. Uli Kusterer]

At 2:09 Uhr +0200 18.04.2004, Max Horn wrote:
>Most every game I have installed store savegames in the same 
>directory they reside in, into a subdir of that directory to be 
>precise. Which corresponds to the CWD, at least on OSX. Examples 
>include Escape Velocity, Neverwinter Nights, Diablo 2, WarCraft III, 
>StarCraft, Unreal 200x, and many many more.

  Are these OS 9 games or OS X games? I.e. /Applications, if a user 
chose to install ScummVM there, is only accessible to Admin users. 
So, anyone running it who is not Admin will need to get savegames 
saved to another location. ~/Library/Preferences or 
~/Library/Application Support OTOH are always guaranteed to be 
writable. As Savegames aren't really user-serviceable parts on OS X 
(as I can't double-click them to launch them and their game), I think 
hiding them there may actually be a better choice.

>Of course it shouldn't "clutter the desktop", I agree with that. But 
>that doesn't mean we have to jump to the direct opposite. IMHO 
>defaulting to a "Saves" or "Savegames" subdirectory next to 
>ScummVM.app makes more sense, at least on Mac OS X. Of course it 
>doesn't make sense if you have installed "scummvm" into 
>/usr/local/bin on your Linux box.

  Okay, I could live with that. "Saved Games" would probably be a more 
user-friendly name. Or maybe you'd want "Saved Games.localized" and 
then create the needed files for localized filenames in there? ... 
okay, that would be too much.

>>Doing a quick poll of the games I have installed it seems "Application
>>Support" is more popular for save games.
>
>Popular maybe yes, correct, no.

  Well, make it a subfolder of Preferences, if you put it in 
Preferences. It wouldn't be nice to litter the Preferences folder 
with savegames either :-)

>>>>Why not rather have ScummVM check, when it is being started, whether
>>>>the active savepath (whatever it is), is writable. If not, pop up a
>>>>dialog to the user, tell 'em about it, and let them choose another
>>>>location, which is then stored in the config file.
>>>
>>Surely both can be used?
>
>Indeed.

  So, Primary path a "Saved Games" folder in the folder containing 
ScummVM (which isn't guaranteed to be the CWD, BTW -- right now 
Finder sets the CWD to that when launching an app, but it's already 
changed once, IIRC), secondary path 
"~/Library/Preferences/ScummVM/Saved Games/" ?

-- 
Cheers,
M. Uli Kusterer
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