Re: defaults randomly being overwritten?

[Jeff Teunissen]

Tim Harrison wrote:

[snip]

> This forces me to inquire as to why all defaults are kept in one file?
> Apparently, this is historic behaviour, but if an application has the
> ability to completely wipe my defaults, that's not good.
> 
> Would it not be a better idea to implement defaults such that each
> application gets it's own file within the defaults directory in the
> Users domain?  This would potentially prevent one errant application
> from destroying all the defaults from every other application.

Well, it will always have the ability. The problem is that it's happening
without an explicit action asking for it. :)

That said, separate files make it more difficult for bad things to happen.
Separate files also make it more difficult for good things to happen
correctly. The question is, is the benefit greater than the danger?

> Also, I don't know if this magic defaults destruction is a GNUstep
> issue, or an application issue.  But, either way, would it not be
> beneficial if GNUstep didn't permit the NSGlobalDomain or any other
> associated "system" defaults to be touched by applications?

No, it wouldn't be beneficial if NSGlobalDomain were read-only -- how
would one change it without manual editing?

Preferences modules, for example, need to edit the global domain.

> Just a thought.  I'm sure, as per my history with this mailing list,
> this will cause a massive flame war. ;)

-- 
| Jeff Teunissen  -=-  Pres., Dusk To Dawn Computing  -=-  deek @ d2dc.net
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