Thursday, January 9, 2003
Where Should Application Settings be Stored?
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 04:07 PM
I'm putting on my Spb VP hat for a minute because I have a question for you about how you think Pocket PC software products should work. Pocket PCs are very different than desktop PCs, especially when it comes to starting over. I only WISH my desktop computer were as easy to "hard reset" as my Pocket PC is. So here's the question:
Let's say you have an application, and as you use that application more and more, it builds up your user preference settings. The question is, where would you want this data stored? In the registry, where it's invisible but hard to back up and restore? (most Pocket PC users don't know how to use a registry editor) Would you prefer to see it as a single file in you My Documents folder? Or would you prefer to have a folder inside My Documents that contained the data? (Maybe something like "My Preferences") Remember this is data that you probably don't want to lose because having to redo all your preferences would be a hassle. So where's the best place to store it?
Let's say you have an application, and as you use that application more and more, it builds up your user preference settings. The question is, where would you want this data stored? In the registry, where it's invisible but hard to back up and restore? (most Pocket PC users don't know how to use a registry editor) Would you prefer to see it as a single file in you My Documents folder? Or would you prefer to have a folder inside My Documents that contained the data? (Maybe something like "My Preferences") Remember this is data that you probably don't want to lose because having to redo all your preferences would be a hassle. So where's the best place to store it?
