Re: XDG and Freedesktop (was: Re: Program to dole out jpg's to subdirctories, card-dealing style.)

In comp.os.linux.misc, Lawrence D'Oliveiro  <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 18:50:40 -0000 (UTC), Eli the Bearded wrote:

In comp.os.linux.misc, Lawrence D'Oliveiro  <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

The XDG spec aims to keep this clutter under control.

Does it? Or does it just create a new closet to sweep them into?

It actually creates a closet to pack things into, whereas before all those
files were lying loose around the floor of your bedroom (aka $HOME). It
actually helps to clean up your room.

How is a "closet to pack things into" different from a "closet to sweep
them into"? I think you have agreed with my statement to 99.9%.

Yeah, but I run plenty of programs that don't use those libraries and
are unlikely to do so.

Many projects have converted. E.g Blender did this some years ago.
Inkscape and GIMP do too. I think newer ones just do it as a matter of
course.

There's an inverse correlation between "difficulty to compile for
oneself" and "likelihood to use XDG conventions".

Not all the world is Linux, and tools like xfig predate Linux.

Freedesktop specs aren't supposed to be Linux-specific.

They sure as fuck are not on the other Unix I use these days, my $WORK
Macintosh. Maybe the other BSDs have picked it up, I have never used
a GUI on modern Netbsd/Freebsd/Openbsd, only shell tools.

Also XDG has a very limited understanding of how people may organize
files. I don't have a "templates" directory, I'm not even sure what I'd
put in one.

There are people accustomed to, shall we say, more "object-oriented" ways
of doing things. Instead of opening an "Untitled" document in the app, and
then having to select the name and place to save it with/in for the first
time, using a template lets you start with a document already named and
placed correctly (and with some suitable initial settings), which you then
open in the app to insert the actual content.

I'm aware such "workflows" exist. I fully acknowledge that my way to do
things is atypical. I also am not sure how many people actually use the
"template" way to work.

Here are the directories I want to use to organize things:

Suit yourself. Free Software is all about choice.

Free Software's choice is Hobson's Choice. Just unlike the old model,
you don't pay through the teeth for it. I can use what is available or
spend all my free time making something else. The same thing was true
when the C compiler cost $295, as here, which was not atypical:

Computer:
https://hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=122

Prices:
http://www.coho.org/~pete/IPC/ordering.html

I used to run locally tweaked sources and compiled versions of things,
but as the library dependencies grew, so too the pain of doing that.
Even different build options are tricky with some modern software. It's
not like Perl: mostly self-contained with just a few very basic
pre-requisites.

Elijah
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cellphones are even worse; an Android build needs a ton of resources