Re: [boost] Re: the first version of abstract path manipulation class (interface)

From: Ken Hagan (k.hagan_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-01-25 10:18:08

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stewart, Robert" <stewart_at_[hidden]>
> 
> My point was that an application trafficking only in 8.3 names -- could
> there still be any? -- would expect to work with upper case pathnames.

There could indeed still be such, since MS-DOS and Win16 still
have users. On the other hand, it is possible to ask WinNT and
its successors not to generate the 8.3 alias. (On such systems,
files with longer names aren't visible to older programs. NTFS
also supports POSIX-style filenames and not all of these are
visible to Win32 programs.)

> 
> I don't want to further complicate matters, but I have to ask:  Are there
> any platforms that use more than a single character as the separator?

VMS has really wierd filenames. (I expect they think MS-DOS has
rather wierd ones, and UNIX rather primitive ones.) I wouldn't
pretend to remember the exact details, but as I recall the volume
name was written within square brackets, so I suppose that counts
as a separator that is both multi-character and non-contiguous.

(Then there are URLs, where the rules can change from one end of
the path to the other. How wide do you want to cast your "net"?)