No hidden settings folder

[mamba]

As mentioned in the beta forum (viewtopic.php?f=293&t=17345) the new version still persists on not hiding the SoftMaker folder in the home directory.
As I read here (viewtopic.php?t=9137), earlier versions did this.

Is there any reason to not hide this folder? Sorry, but this is terrible. What's the problem with a dot at the beginning of this folder?

[dgalvan]

This is definitely a mandatory feature. Linux users generally have certain expectations of the way programs behave and it is highly recommended to comply with the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard as well as the XDG Base Directory Specifications. For many potential users, programs not adhering to these standardizations would lead them to seek alternative programs that integrate better with the OS (many of which are free and open source). Many first-time users will immediately seek an option to change the default folder setting upon discovery of the visible "SoftMaker" folder within their home directory and immediately uninstall the program due to the inability to do so. For a paid application (one that I see great potential in), this is not a request, it is a requirement.

[sven-l]

We referred your suggestion to hide the folder to the product management for internal discussion.

[dgalvan]

Although most Linux users will generally stick to well established open-source products - business professionals, educators, and students would opt for a commercial application such as SoftMaker in order to comply with true Microsoft Office compatibility requirements. If the developers of SoftMaker truly wish to gain a customer base within the Open Source community, then I would recommend they attempt to adapt some of the methods that make open-source applications loved by their users.

Perhaps the developers would be willing to adopt a method that seems to be working for the developers at Microsoft: https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL

Without actually hosting the source on GitHub, users are able to communicate directly with the developers as well as with other users experiencing similar issues. The direct interaction between developers and the users is partly what drives the Linux community and would certainly boost the appeal of SoftMaker to many potential users.

We referred your suggestion to hide the folder to the product management fur internal discussion.

In doing so, I assume there is no need for me to post to http://www.softmaker.com/en/feedback?

[mamba]

has this been changed now?

[martin-k]

No. SoftMaker Office creates the folder "SoftMaker" in the home folder, and it contains your settings, templates and default documents.

Yes, this was different before where it was split between .softmaker for settings and SoftMaker for templates and documents. But this led to customer confusion (some users simply didn't find this hidden folder), and that's why we changed this. Note that even before, you could not get rid of the "SoftMaker" folder. Now you just have one folder in home, instead of two (one hidden) as before.

[anand]

Hi there,

Let us hide the directory for settings and make default files/template directory to change whatever location we want. It should not be forced. I want my home directory clean.

[Michael Uplawski]

I only access to a sub-folder of /home/[user], when I already know what I want to do there or which file I will need to work with. So, while I had to get accustomed to the new location in ~/SoftMaker, -and although I had to change a few shell-scripts which manipulate the configuration of SoftMaker Office-, the change does not disturb me (I repeat: me me me) in any way.
There are other folders, automatically created by genuine Linux-software, under /home/[user], which are of absolutely no use to me; that is far less than I can say for ~/SoftMaker. And I do still not care. The only time, I did, was when I could not find any configurations for SoftMaker Office. It was enough to tell me once.

Now.

Irrespective of my own or anyone's predilection in file-system structures, the best place (Best Place Ever, if you do not accept anything below that) for configuration-files, nowadays, is probably some sub-folder under /home/[user]/.config. The only reason for me to state this, is though the fact that there are already a lot of configurations written to .config. However, if anyone says that she/he cares for each of these folders and that she/he needs them to be there as she/he frequently has adaptations to do in each and every one, she/he is a bloody liar! Ω

P.S.: the forum transforms the Tilde in my post into a simple dash (-, Tilde: ~).

[mirabilos]

I figured out how to work around this, because placing non-hidden files and directories into my home directory is a *huge* no-go (and I regularily teach other software to not do that, or don’t use it).

The workaround only works on a single-user system, though.

Code: Select all

cd /usr/share/freeoffice2018
sudo ln -s /path/to/your/settings/directory SoftMaker
sudo touch portable.txt

This works because, if the “portable.txt” file is created, SoftMaker Freeoffice only writes into a subdirectory thereof, which survives symlinks (mostly because the symlink is done as root and the program is run as user).

In my case, I have a $HOME/Misc/SoftMaker (from the previous installation) which I linked (“sudo ln -s $HOME/Misc/SoftMaker”).

[mirabilos]

Hmpf, no, it doesn’t. It only moves _some_ of it ☹

[mirabilos]

Ah, found a fix…

Code: Select all

perl -pi -e "s!$HOME/SoftMaker!/path/to/new/settings/directory!" /path/to/new/settings/directory/*.ini