Preferred Multi-Platform Development Method

[Devin Asay]

On May 8, 2009, at 3:31 PM, David Beck wrote:
> My only question is where to store the preferences that we are storing
> in the Windows Registry. We do have a mechanism to store preferences,
> but there are certain preferences that are system wide, and should not
> change based on the user of the computer (e.g. the install path of a
> standalone application, etc.). Any advice on where to store these  
> global
> system-wide preferences on the Mac?

The common place for storing global preferences or settings is in / 
Library or possibly /Library/Application Support/, depending on the  
type of files you're saving. The latter is what you get with  
specialFolderPath("asup"). Typically developers create their own  
directories in that folder: /Library/Application Support/MyApp, then  
store their files there.
>
>
> Richard, I understand you are using a stackfile for preferences. How
> exactly do you implement this? That is, what calls do you use to get  
> and
> set preferences in the stackfile? Does the folder you mentioned
> (specialApplicationFolder("preferences")) change based on the current
> user or is it system wide? Also, are there any permissions issues to  
> be
> careful about?

specialFolderPath("Preferences") is per user. But there are lots of  
folders you can derive with this function. See Ken Ray's excellent  
compilation at:

http://www.sonsothunder.com/devres/revolution/tips/file010.htm

As for permissions, I think the folders in the /Library directory  
require administrator permissions, but obviously any user can write  
anywhere in their own home directory. Others will have more things to  
add to this, I'm sure.

Regards,

Devin


Devin Asay
Humanities Technology and Research Support Center
Brigham Young University