[Gambas-devel] Possible usefull addition to Gambas?

[Tobias Boege]

On Thu, 15 Jan 2015, Willy Raets wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I have been running into trouble with localisation making certain Linux
> folder names being different, depending on language.
> 
> Like folder Desktop is not Desktop for all languages so when doing
> User.Home &/ "Desktop" your application gets into trouble on for example
> a system running Dutch where "Desktop" folder becomes "Bureaublad"
> folder.
> 
> I have solved this problem with creating a function in my Gambas library
> that gets the proper folder named based on the local language settings.
> 
> I think it might be a good addition for the User class to for example
> have User.DesktopFolder return the User Desktop folder path taking into
> account localisation.
> 
> The function is as follows (and could be added to User class):
> 
> '' To convert standard linux folder names to user localised folder
> names.<br />
> '' Possible values for FolderName are: <br />
> '' Desktop, Documents, Download, Music, Pictures and Videos
> Public Function FolderLocales(FolderName As String) As String
>  
>   Dim sHelp As String
>   FolderName = Upper(FolderName)
>   Select FolderName
>     Case "DESKTOP", "DOCUMENTS", "DOWNLOAD", "MUSIC", "PICTURES",
> "VIDEOS"
>       Exec ["xdg-user-dirs-update"] Wait

Maybe do this once in your _init(), not on every query?

I don't have these scripts installed but from the ArchWiki[0], it seems that
xdg-user-dirs-update *creates* directories. I see the following problem:
when I explain workflow things in the IDE to German-only-speaking Gambas
users I need to switch my IDE to German (when it's normally English). I
don't want these directories to be created automatically when the IDE tries
to query some directory.

Normally I only keep the Documents directory anyway. I don't want to delete
the others on a regular basis.

A good solution would be an optional parameter EnsureExist = False per
default. Then the program can decide if the existence of a particular
directory is really necessary for it to function.

>       Exec ["xdg-user-dir", FolderName] Wait To sHelp Left(sHelp, -1)
>       Return Left(sHelp, -1)
>     Case Else
>       sHelp = Subst(("Illegal argument &1 for FolderName! Use either
> Desktop, Documents, Download, Music, Pictures or Videos."), FolderName)
>       Message.Error(sHelp)
>       Error.Raise(sHelp)
>   End Select
>  
>   Catch
>     Error.Clear

Why Error.Clear() in Catch? I haven't seen this pattern anywhere in the
sources yet and grep shows that indeed this method is only used in the
IDE somewhere and there not inside a Catch block.

I'm curious what you want to accomplish.

>     Return Null
>  
> End
> 
> Now User.DesktopFolder could return this:
> Return Subst(User.Home &/ "&1", FolderLocales("Desktop"))
> 
> User.MusicFolder could return:
> Return Subst(User.Home &/ "&1", FolderLocales("Music"))
> 
> and so on....
> 
> What do you think, a useful addition?
> 

Using xdg scripts reminds me more of gb.desktop... There are already
Desktop.CacheDir and Desktop.DataDir there.

Regards,
Tobi

[0] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xdg_user_directories

-- 
"There's an old saying: Don't change anything... ever!" -- Mr. Monk