Thoth @thoth@cybre.space

3) $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/app: this is skippable, but it's where most modern users expect you to create your configs and is better than the Old Ways in that it makes $HOME less cluttered and makes it easier to version-control your config files. (If this isn't set, default to $HOME/.config)

4) $HOME/.app: if you accept the above, this is optional. Otherwise... uh... everything goes here. Create if does not exist.

Oh and accept ~ and $ENVVARS in your config. FFS.

Once and for all, if you want to know where to put user config and data, search these in this order:

1) Environment variable. $APP_THING (config, data, etc). Not necessary for all apps, but if you're... say... MAME, and your configs are probably right next to 700GB of ROMS... yeaaaah probably add this one so users can point you to that second hard drive they've got.

2) /etc/app: this is where SYSTEM defaults live. If it exists, load it and continue searching. Use the values here as fallback.

And while I'm ragging on bad places to put your user configs and ancillary data...

Don't place data relative to your executable. Just don't. Finding yourself is a pain and it's a dumb idea because you don't know where that exe's gonna be.

If I can't just put your application in /bin, that is a bug.

There's a very special place in hell for programs whose searchpath defaults to current dir.

There's an even more special place in hell for programs that provide no mechanism to specify the searchpath.

It's this extremely windows mentality.

Why yes it is very funny and kind of gross that you can replace Guile's American flag tattoo with a product placement in SFV.

Probably the single piece of writing that most influenced my understanding of and relationship with computers is Neil Stephenson's "In the Beginning was the Command-line".

The specifics are all very 90s, but the more general aspects of the work haven't aged a day.

The fact that I put in so much after to make sure I'm not talking about myself all the time kinda reflects badly on me as a person.

If I was a better person this would be easier.

I know a lot of things and way too lazy to put it into the practice.

This just happened. I'm not even kidding.

You know your discord server is weird when your gushing admiration of 720p pixel art is interrupted by someone explaining how Attack On Titan was written by a eugenecist.

Fun fact: We don't know why chroot was added to BSD. Like, literally. Bill Joy integrated it late one night for... some reason.

If you ever used wikipedia you have recreational drug use to thank.

So I just spent an hour trying to get to the point where I can consistently execute a Shoryuken on my DS4's D-pad in 3rd Strike.

I remain unsuccessful.

I have part of a song stuck in my head that I swear to god doesn't actually exist. But I'm remembering it like it does.

I mean, to be clear I am 100% down with random-ass Dune references in songs. I just dunno how it got big.

How the hell did "Weapon of Choice" ever get popular?

I mean, when you break it down, it's a REALLY weird-ass song. It's catchy samples and these super low, distorted vocals and a chorus that doesn't make much sense. Oh, and a random-ass Dune reference out of nowhere.

And I'm not even hardcore anti-piracy. I've totally pirated shit. And I have my reasons and personal justifications. But this pseudo-righteous bullshit pisses me off. Pirating things doesn't make you a fucking hero.

"Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't support Linux so we don't want to give it money but we want to play it and therefore we should pirate it but it's fine because because CDPR probably doesn't pay its employees enough" is... certainly A Take.

I mean, it's not complicated. People who make things you like deserve money. If you're boycotting the thing because you don't want to give them money, you don't get to have the thing.

People rag in X a lot but TBH if you consider how radically different your usecase for X is to what X was designed to do it's kinda amazing it works as well as it does.

Like, you're either Counterfeit Monkey or you're Flexible Survival and there's no middle ground.

By the way, Counterfeit Monkey is great.