Needed: a convention to indicate a path for Windows, Linux, and Mac

[Lauren]

I try to use something that it is intuitive, like a common name for the
location, placed inside angle brackets or whatever convention of offset that
I can use that will not be confused with a literal string.  So for "the
user's home directory," I might use:

<home directory>/Product_Name/Folder/File.cfg

In your case, that can be "<install location>."

Lauren

> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lauren=writeco.net at lists.techwr-l.com 
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lauren=writeco.net at lists.techwr-l.com
> ] On Behalf Of Leonard C. Porrello
> Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 8:10 AM
> To: techwr-l at lists.techwr-l.com
> Subject: Needed: a convention to indicate a path for Windows, 
> Linux, and Mac
> 
> The applications I am documenting runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac. In
> several places, I need to indicate to users that the files 
> they need are
> located at the application installation location on the hard drive. In
> Windows, this is "c:/Program files/Product_Name/Folder/File.cfg". In
> Linux, the path is different, starting from the fact that there is no
> "c:".
> 
> I need a convention to indicate path prior to
> "/Product_Name/Folder/File.cfg". The convention needs to work for
> Windows, Linux, and Mac.
> 
> I currently have ellipses (".../Product_Name/Folder"), but my
> development lead tells me that this won't do as ellipses are sometimes
> used literally. Does anyone have any other ideas?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Leonard C. Porrello
> SoleraTec LLC
> www.soleratec.com
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