Cross-platform path specification (was RE: Access directory relatively)
Richard A. O'Keefe
ok at cs.otago.ac.nz
Wed Aug 7 02:11:03 UTC 2002
Tim Rowledge <tim at sumeru.stanford.edu> wrote:
I really think that comma is a good selector to use, since we
really are concatenating elements on to a path.
People really do need to understand that filenames are not
strings and you can't properly build them by simply sticking
strings together with slashes in there somehow. There's a bunch
of truly awful code lying around the image that makes that
assumption and it needs to be excised, root and branch.
Suppose we think of a "file name" (more generally, a URI) as
a "base" and a "path". (A "base" might be a drive letter in DOS/Windows
or a disc name in MacOS.) Suppose we agree that a "path" is a sequence
of names. (Not always true. In PR1MOS, a path was a sequence of
name optional-password _pairs_.)
So "A:\B" extend-with "C" is "A:\B\C"
This is NOT the same as concatenating two sequences.
It is ADDING ONE ELEMENT to a sequence.
(More precisely, given (base,path) and name we are returning a new
(base,path++[name]) object.)
Consider
'ab' , $c
This is not at all allowed in Squeak.
You get 'Error: Characters are not indexable' if you try it.
So the analogy just plain does not hold.
If we were talking about writing
FileDirectory default , #(foo bar ugh)
then yes, the concatenation analogy would hold. But for
FileDirectory default , #foo , #bar , #ugh
it does not hold.
<CSOTD>
"In class SequenceableCollection category copying, add"
append: anItem
^self , (Array with: anItem)
</CSOTD>
_This_ is the operation that adding a name to a path most resembles.
I agree that
((FileDirectory default append: #foo) append: #bar) append: #ugh
is not as concise as using commas, but it is a lot less confusing.
What I don't understand is why FileDirectory hasn't had operations
fd parent (equivalent of ..)
fd child: #name (the operation whose name we're arguing about)
since day 1.
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