[boost] Re: Any interest in a boost::glob() function?

From: Martin (adrianm_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-10-01 04:35:34

> An interesting idea and certainly much less work 
> 
> However, as I understand it, you're suggesting limiting the wildcards
> simply to ensure that the filtered_directory_iterator behaves the same on
> posix and windows systems?

No. The main reason was to have a simple iterator for simple (and what I think 
is the most common) cases which also avoid the need to go via a list.

> Of course that is possible, but my suggestion
> gives windows users the full power of glob().

So did I but I put it into a separate iterator where you can define the rules 
completely independent of the filesystem.

> Don't you ever search for things like "[a-d]*.{cxx,hpp}"?

I do it in the shell but I have never had the need to do it inside an 
application. I'm sure there are such applications.

> Sorry, but I don't see why such a proposal is an improvement.

> Also, how do you limit the wildcards? I take it you don't, but that the
> underlying matcher (findfirstfile, glob) will behave differently on
> receipt of the same pattern.

The filesystems already behave differently since one is case-sensitive and the 
other is not. Anyway, I think it is reasonable to limit the wildcards to some 
portable syntax e.g. max 2 '*' are allowed and they must either be the last 
character or followed by a '.'.