[Gvsig_english] Recent change for gvSIG 1.10 in SVN

[Francisco José Peñarrubia]

Hi.

This change comes from a patch to avoid conflicts between several 
installations of gvSIG, and some problems related to this conflicts in 
configuration.
I think the solution of Cesar is better, and I will try to implement, 
but only partially. I will not touch the installation program, and we 
will create gvSIG/version directories.
If the user wants to keep the old config and preferences, he must copy 
by himself the files.

Ok with that?.

Fran.

César Martínez Izquierdo escribió:
> Hi Ben,
>
> It seems that commit matches the following ticket:
> http://forge.osor.eu/tracker/?func=detail&atid=732&aid=14411&group_id=89
>
> I think the idea was allowing different configurations for different
> gvSIG installations.
> However, I agree with you that it is not as good ideas as it may seem
> at a first glance, and I suggest to better analyze all the possible
> behaviours to select the desired one.
>
> Besides the multi-user problem that you point at, I see other possible problems:
> - If I install a new gvSIG version, should I set all my configuration
> again? This looks as a regression to me.
> - What happens if the user has no write permissions on the gvSIG
> installation folder?
>
> I think it is ALWAYS a good practice to keep program configurations on
> the user home, and program installation on a different one, and don't
> mix them up.
>
> I guess that the intention of this change was to be able to execute 2
> different gvSIG versions which may have conflicting configuration
> files (because changes on code, etc). If this is the case, I would
> suggest a different approach:
> - Keep config in home.dir folder, under a versioned folder (for
> example, ${HOME}/gvSIG/1.1 or ${HOME}/gvSIG/1.9).
> - Whenever you install a newer version, copy the last version
> configuration to the new dir. For example, if you new install 1.10,
> copy config from ${HOME}/gvSIG/1.9 to ${HOME}/gvSIG/1.10 and update
> any conflicting files on 1.10 folder.
> - In this way, the user would find the old configuration in the new
> versions, but version conflicts are avoided (so he would still be able
> to run 1.9 if desired)
> - Drawbacks: configuration changes applied on 1.9 version wouldn't
> apply to 1.10 version and vice versa. But this is better than having
> version conflicts, I think. Of course it could be solved with smarter
> approaches, but for sure they would be more complex and I don't think
> there are resources available for this now.
>
> I have written all this off the top of my head, but I think this topic
> should be carefully thinking, as it may create lots of problems
> otherwise.
>
> Best regards,
>
> César
>
>
> 2010/7/7 Benjamin Ducke <benjamin.ducke at oxfordarch.co.uk>:
>   
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I have just had a look at the recent changes in SVN and found
>> that the default location for gvSIG settings has been changed
>> from $HOME/gvSIG:
>>
>> Launcher.java now has this:
>>
>>  andamiConfigPath = System.getProperty("user.dir") +  File.separator + "andami-config.xml";
>>  pluginsPersistencePath = System.getProperty("user.dir") + File.separator + "plugins-persistence.xml";
>>
>> Are you all sure this is a good idea? According to the Java documentation,
>> "user.dir" is the "current working directory".
>>
>> But:
>>
>> 1. If the user launches gvSIG from a shell, then "user.dir" could
>> be literally ANY location in the filesystem. So settings are bound
>> to get lost between sessions or (even worse) they get restored from
>> unexpected old storage locations.
>>
>> 2. If the user launches gvSIG via a desktop shortcut or a Mac OS
>> App package, then "user.dir" will always point to the gvSIG installation
>> folder. On a system set up for multiple users, with just one gvSIG
>> installation folder, this can mean total chaos, as users overwrite each
>> other's settings.
>>
>> All of that makes me a bit worried!
>> Could someone please explain the reasoning behind this change
>> and how it is supposed to work?
>>
>> I think the ONLY reasonable place for user settings has to be
>> the user's home folder. If it is required to keep more than one
>> set of settings, then those sets should all be kept in the home
>> folder, perhaps in separate directories.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Ben
>>
>>
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>>     
>
>
>
>   

-- 
Fran Peñarrubia
Scolab
www.scolab.es

Asociación gvSIG
www.gvsig.com