Spring RTS Engine

Move springsettings.cfg from

C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\springsettings.cfg

to main spring folder. Or at least option to have it in spring folder.

spring.exe supports -C configfile option. bug lobby authors to support it.

Most probably you won't have write access to program files as a normal user. Running springsettings as admin is a inexcusable security risk, so its common sense to put it where it is now.

How you can change it was already explained.

what's with luaUI? (it needs write access to LuaUI/Config/...)

that's a good question. it should have it's own user dir, I guess.

We could change the installer to install all user files to the user's directory where he has write access, but that caused epic flame and hate last time I suggested it

Could you at least make it so that when the cfg file is present in the main spring folder it will load config only from it?

I prefer it too to have all stuff in the spring maindir, but it should autodetect if there is no write access and use the homedirs then.

jK wrote:I prefer it too to have all stuff in the spring maindir, but it should autodetect if there is no write access and use the homedirs then.

This.

bah work work more work? even if i'm +1...

why the heck theres this idea in first place that it should put config into a binary's install dir? Even if its writable.
Could anyone here actually post any benefits for that? Besides fixing the temporary "zomg my config is gone?" issue.

Drawbacks are: confusion for users (some will have in install dir, some in user config), more potential for bugs (AFAIK vista will report you that install folder is writable but put actual config files into special folder, in your user home), some extra weird platform specific behaviour (nobody wants to have config in install folder on linux anyway, so thatd be windows only).

Some people are really attached to the pre-windows way of doing things where you could manually manage your application as a simple ball of files, rather than having to deal with all the ways it muddies-up your computer in various folders.

They want everything (maps, lua, executable, mods, config) in the same folder.

Meanwhile, modern way is to have different locations based on whether the OS user needs to write to them, and whether other OS users will want to read from there. Which is great, but it means that the user doesn't know where the hell all his files are that are relevant to this app.

Some people like everything in one place as opposed to spread out across whole hd. Also it allows for great portability.

If there is a config in the install dir, it should always use that. I don't know about putting one there by itself, unless you install outside of program files. Any program put outside of program files should stay as self-contained as possible.

Well...almost all applications which have installer don't store config alongside binary.

Furthermore, there are a ton of tools for making apps "portable" as in working from usb drive.

dizekat wrote:Well...almost all applications which have installer don't store config alongside binary.

Bit offtopic, but it would be great to have a non-installer version of spring :D

Plenty of apps become portable by placing the config file next to the binary. It's a very clean and common method.

lurker wrote:Look at how many apps become portable by placing the config file next to the binary. It's a very clean and common method.

list those apps?

Actually I'm all for lurker's idea, if there is config alongside binary, use it, and save changes to config here, otherwise use config in home folder and save changes to home folder. Sounds clean enough.

But I myself *absolutely* don't need it (using Linux anyway). Even if I were using windows and wanted to play spring from flash drive on different computers... guess what. I'd want different configuration on those different computers anyway, because of different graphics cards and/or displays.
(assuming I play on each of those computers more than once. Even if I play once, i still will have to edit config for a computer)

I say, someone who needs this feature should implement it in springlobby, and maintain it. Because implementing/maintaining a feature you absolutely don't need and never use completely fails.

dizekat wrote:list those apps?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_po ... uter_games

dizekat wrote:I say, someone who needs this feature should implement it in springlobby, and maintain it. Because implementing/maintaining a feature you absolutely don't need and never use completely fails.

That's the spirit mister developer!