Windows and Linux

Windows and Linux differences

Windows 10, Windows 11 and Linux are equal targets (ADR-0001), and both legs are tested on every change. The differences below are the operating systems' rather than this product's.

macOS is not a target. ADR-0072 says why, and what it would cost.

Where things are kept

	Windows	Linux
Settings	%APPDATA%\bachelorpad\ (roams)	$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/bachelorpad/, else ~/.config/bachelorpad/
Index, recent files	%LOCALAPPDATA%\bachelorpad\data\	$XDG_DATA_HOME/bachelorpad/, else ~/.local/share/bachelorpad/
Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\bachelorpad\cache\	$XDG_CACHE_HOME/bachelorpad/, else ~/.cache/bachelorpad/
Recovery journals	%LOCALAPPDATA%\bachelorpad\state\	$XDG_STATE_HOME/bachelorpad/, else ~/.local/state/bachelorpad/

A relative XDG_* variable is ignored, as the specification requires -- an editor that honoured one would put your settings under whatever directory it happened to be launched from.

Filenames

Windows forbids < > : " / \ | ? *, forbids the reserved device names CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1-COM9 and LPT1-LPT9 whatever extension you give them, and quietly strips trailing dots and spaces. Linux forbids only / and the null byte.

A name that is fine on Linux and illegal on Windows is caught before the save rather than after it fails.

Windows path length is handled with the \\?\ prefix where it is needed. Linux is case-sensitive and Windows is not, so two filenames differing only in case are two files on one and one file on the other -- which the product knows about when it asks whether you are about to overwrite something.

Default-editor registration

Different mechanisms, the same rule: this product never seizes a file association (ADR-0012). It shows you what it would do and hands you the means to do it.

	Windows	Linux
What is written	HKCU\Software\Classes entries	a .desktop entry and a MIME package
How	a .reg file you read and run	files written under your home directory
Finishing the job	Settings > Default apps	update-desktop-database, update-mime-database

Both are named for you and neither is run for you. A library that spawns processes on your behalf is a library that can be talked into spawning a different one.

See Making it your default editor.

The console, on Windows

A Windows release build is a GUI-subsystem executable and has no console of its own, so --help and --version print to a terminal when you run it from one and go nowhere when you double-click it. Measured and conceded deliberately -- the alternative costs unsafe and a Windows dependency.

On Linux the binary is an ordinary console program and always prints.

File dialogs

Linux uses the XDG desktop portal rather than a specific toolkit, so the program does not need a particular desktop environment installed just to open a file.

Capabilities that differ

Help > Diagnostics and the Tools menu report what this platform can and cannot do, with the reason attached, rather than a feature quietly being absent. Two of them -- a credential store and biometric unlock -- report awaiting decision on both platforms, because what would have gone in them was a signing key and signing was removed.

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