RE: $HOME default on w32

["Jay Finger" <jay.finger@pobox.com>]

Stefan said
> From a Unix point of view, $HOME should be (as far as possible) "the
> highest
> user-specific directory", so that everything that belongs to the user is
> below ~.
> 
> I think that's why I feel like HOME == USERPROFILE makes more sense.
> 
> And since non-user-generated files (like ~/.emacs if it comes from Custom,
> or ~/.emacs.d/auto-save-list) are put below $HOME, I feel like "My
> Documents" would be wrong.
> 
> I have no interest in following W32 practice: I just want to get Emacs
> working as well as it can in this inhospitable (because non-Unixy)
> environment.  Using C:\ is clearly wrong on systems where C:\ is not
> writable or where there are multiple users.

I don't really understand the statement that '$HOME should be (as far as
possible) "the highest user-specific directory"'.  I certainly get that _is_
that way outside of Windows, but what in emacs' behavior makes you think
$HOME _should be_ as high as possible?

Please don't misunderstand me:  I'm not trying to convert anybody, nor do I
want Emacs behave as a "normal" W32 app.  But I think users will find it
more intuitive if "~" is a directory more likely to have their "stuff".
Those of us with a Unix background will likely not find that any less
convenient than $USERPROFILE, which by itself is already a long sequence of
characters with some spaces.  Personally, the shortcut I use to start emacs
sets the starting folder to where my source trees are (no spaces!) so I at
least have something easy type when I'm in *scratch*.  But I also set $HOME
to My Documents on all my machines because that's where my stuff is.

jay