[Pythonmac-SIG] [Pyobjc-dev] [ANN] py2app 0.3.2

[Bob Ippolito]

On Jul 24, 2006, at 4:41 PM, Christopher Barker wrote:

>>>> When a script is installed somewhere central, like /usr/local/bin,
>>>> that's really all that makes sense.
>>>
>>> That's clearly irrelevant, because people aren't going to be double-
>>> clicking on files that you have to do "magic incantations" to even
>>> see from Finder.
>
> Fair enough, but what about /Applications, etc?

That's twelve times as irrelevant because anything there is an  
application bundle.

>> That's why normal application bundles start with
>> / as the CWD.
>
> Which is a poor choice: these really should default to $HOME. I'm sick
> of accidentally dumping MSExcel files in my root directory. I can't
> think of any time anyone should ever put anything in (or get anything
> from) /. Most applications should only ever be manipulating files  
> inside
> $HOME.

It's not a poor choice at all. It's Apple telling software developers  
that relative paths are a really stupid idea in a system where users  
are supposed to be able to move things around wherever the hell they  
want, even at runtime.

>>> I have never in my life seen a script that must be started
>>> with a working directory of $HOME (unless it also lives there).  
>>> It is
>>> however extremely common for scripts to require that they are run
>>> from the directory they live in.
>
> OK I'm sold (not that I needed to be).
>
> There are instances, however. For example, SPE isn't built as  
> an .app. I
> have a friend that has set it up to click on it and PythonLauncher
> starts it. In that case, $HOME makes more sense. However, the real
> solution is to build an .app or applet with it.

Well, no. $HOME still doesn't make any sense for the working  
directory. It should be built as an .app, however, because people  
will want SPE to be associated as an editor for .py files.

-bob