Procs

proc getBasePath*(): cstring {...}{.cdecl, importc: "SDL_GetBasePath",
                               dynlib: SDL2_LIB.}

Get the path where the application resides.

Get the "base path". This is the directory where the application was run from, which is probably the installation directory, and may or may not be the process's current working directory.

This returns an absolute path in UTF-8 encoding, and is guaranteed to end with a path separator ('\' on Windows, '/' most other places).

The pointer returned by this procedure is owned by you. Please call free() on the pointer when you are done with it, or it will be a memory leak. This is not necessarily a fast call, though, so you should call this once near startup and save the string if you need it.

Some platforms can't determine the application's path, and on other platforms, this might be meaningless. In such cases, this procedure will return nil.

Return string of base dir in UTF-8 encoding, or nil on error.

See also:

getPrefPath()

proc getPrefPath*(org: cstring; app: cstring): cstring {...}{.cdecl,
    importc: "SDL_GetPrefPath", dynlib: SDL2_LIB.}

Get the user-and-app-specific path where files can be written.

Get the "pref dir". This is meant to be where users can write personal files (preferences and save games, etc) that are specific to your application. This directory is unique per user, per application.

This procedure will decide the appropriate location in the native filesystem, create the directory if necessary, and return a string of the absolute path to the directory in UTF-8 encoding.

On Windows, the string might look like: "C:\Users\bob\AppData\Roaming\My Company\My Program Name\"

On Linux, the string might look like: "/home/bob/.local/share/My Program Name/"

On Mac OS X, the string might look like: "/Users/bob/Library/Application Support/My Program Name/"

(etc.)

You specify the name of your organization (if it's not a real organization, your name or an Internet domain you own might do) and the name of your application. These should be untranslated proper names.

Both the org and app strings may become part of a directory name, so please follow these rules:

• Try to use the same org string (including case-sensitivity) for all your applications that use this procedure.
• Always use a unique app string for each one, and make sure it never changes for an app once you've decided on it.
• Unicode characters are legal, as long as it's UTF-8 encoded, but...
• ...only use letters, numbers, and spaces. Avoid punctuation like "Game Name 2: Bad Guy's Revenge!" ... "Game Name 2" is sufficient.

This returns an absolute path in UTF-8 encoding, and is guaranteed to end with a path separator ('\' on Windows, '/' most other places).

The pointer returned by this procedure is owned by you. Please call free() on the pointer when you are done with it, or it will be a memory leak. This is not necessarily a fast call, though, so you should call this once near startup and save the string if you need it.

You should assume the path returned by this procedure is the only safe place to write files (and that getBasePath(), while it might be writable, or even the parent of the returned path, aren't where you should be writing things).

Some platforms can't determine the pref path, and on other platforms, this might be meaningless. In such cases, this procedure will return nil.

org The name of your organization.

app The name of your application.

Return UTF-8 string of user dir in platform-dependent notation. nil if there's a problem (creating directory failed, etc).

See also:

getBasePath()