[Pythonmac-SIG] Re: Per user dirs on Non-Unix platforms (was Re: [Python-Dev] Where to install non-code files) (fwd)

[Jack Jansen]

> My mac knowledge is still very limited.  But recently I saw on a Mac running
> some MacOS Version 9.X a login dialogbox asking for 'username' and 'password'.
> Since this was a very new G400 without any third party stuff installed on,
> I guess some form of user accounts have been added to recent versions of
> MacOS.  Right?

MacOS 9 logins are rumoured to be not all that stable, and to interfere with 
things like backups and timed tasks, so I've stayed away from them so far. I 
don't know whether there is something like a user home directory.

MacOS X turns the world inside out, where to the user his/her home directory 
appears as the root of the world. I don't know whether this is something 
that's handled at os/filesystem level, or whether it's just the finder doing 
this magic. If the former then a fixed pathname will work for HOME, and if the 
latter MacPython will be able to use the finder algorithm to find something to 
stuff in HOME.

But note that 99% of the code that uses os.environ['HOME'] uses it to stuff 
dot-files in there, or obtain a point to store a mail folder or some such. And 
these things should be done differently on the Mac anyway, so putting a value 
into HOME may do more harm than good.

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