Re: [boost] Re: The art of naming namespaces [was: Re: algorithms namespace]

From: Phil Richards (news_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-03-01 12:52:49

[I sent this a couple of days ago but it appears to have got lost in the
ether...]

On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 18:06:05 -0500, David Abrahams wrote:
> Exploring the filesystem is, IMO, conceptually different from doing I/O.

The keyword there is "doing".  I agree with your statement, I just don't
necessarily agree with the implication that naming the namespace "io"
means everything in the namespace is "doing" I/O.  I would read it as
"related to I/O".

Filesystems are related to I/O, otherwise they serve no point. 
boost::filesystem is about exploring _and_ modifying the underlying
filesystem; quite where you draw the line between an action being
"filesystem" related and I/O related is seems to be a bit fuzzy - creating
a file modifies the filesystem (hence filesystem::fstream) and this
involves I/O.  So does the directory creation stuff.

I suspect that a move to "io" as a namespace would also require the
class names to change if things are to read correctly:
  boost::filesystem::path p;
is nice, but
  boost::io::path p;
loses something.

Or maybe drop boost::io as an idea...

Obviously, if other people read "io" to mean "doing I/O" then the name is
bad, so my justifications aren't much use, and any further ponderings can
be elided :-)

phil
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