Re: tilde expansion failure

[Bastian M. <bma...@we...>]

Hans-Bernhard Broeker wrote:
> Bastian M=E4rkisch wrote:
>=20
>> Currently tilde expansion of paths like "~/gnuplot.history" via=20
>> gp_expand_tilde() on Windows 9x will fail unless the user sets the=20
>> HOME environment variable.
>=20
>=20
> And because that's bad,  wgnuplot prints this message in such case,=20
> right on the startup screen:
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>          warning: no HOME found
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>=20
>> The string containing the path is left unchanged and does therefore=20
>> not contain
>> a valid path.=20
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> There's not much that could usefully be done about that --- there's no =

> single replacement that would be equally applicable for all Windows=20
> platforms.
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> Now that we have the code to locate a suitable fall-back location (for =

> wgnuplot.ini), arguably all other state save files should go there, too=

> (i.e. gnuplot.ini, the cross-session history file, and whatever else).

Agreed. Possibly it would be even better to have a %APPDATA%\gnuplot
directory in that case.

>=20
>> 2) Use a default directory instead, where 'default' could be the curre=
nt
>> directory or the directory where gnuplot.exe resides.=20
>=20
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> That's pretty much guaranteed to be wrong (not to mention isn't even=20
> accessible to normal users on a properly installed, modern Windows).

That's why I propsed it as as a fall-back for older versions of Windows
(like Win9x) only ...

I would propose the following behaviour:

	1) Try %HOME% directory from environment. That way
	   gnuplot can adjust to user preferences and it won't
	   break unix-like builds on Windows (cygwin)

	2) Try SHGetSpecialFolderPath() or %APPDATA%, if available.
	   Optionally use %APPDATA%\gnuplot directory instead.

	3) Issue a warning message (no HOME found) and give up. This
	   means gnuplot now requires HOME to be set for certain
	   functionality.

Is that reasonable now?


--=20
Bastian M=E4rkisch
Physikalisches Institut, Universit=E4t Heidelberg
Philosophenweg 12
69120 Heidelberg
Tel.: +49-6221-549239
Fax: +49-6221-549343