[Idle-dev] Location of settings files under Windows

[Terry Reedy]

On 12/3/2010 11:21 AM, Andrew McDonald wrote:
> Hi. Is there any chance you'll consider moving where IDLE stores its
> app settings files under Windows? It's currently dumping them directly
> into the user's folder root, Unix style, in ".idlerc". This isn't how
> things are supposed to be done in Windows - it should be in the
> application data special folder, retrieved through SHGetFolderPath or
> similar. It's especially bad under Vista/Windows 7, because the user
> root is often presented to the user in the Explorer interface and
> Start menu where it used to only really be concerned with the My
> Documents subfolder. So Unix-style apps like this bloat up the user's
> view (Perforce and Blender are similar offenders.)
>
> Pretty please? I'm using IDLE 2.7, perhaps this is already fixed with
> the Python 3 packages?

In 3.1, .idlerc is still under Documents and Settings/<username>,  I 
also have .alice, .java, .jedit, .jpi_cache, and .mnemosyne. So it seems 
to be pretty common, but these really all belong under ApplicationData 
or even Local Setting/ApplicationData. (Some apps put directories under 
both. Do you know the designed difference?)

I am pretty sure all is the same in 3.2. However, if you file an feature 
request issue, a change could be considered for 3.3. However, one 
problem is that there is one .idlerc for all versions, so settings are 
the same regardless of Python version on top of which IDLE runs. So 
moving could be a problem.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy