Re: [boost] Re: Design for a file system library

From: Peter Dimov (pdimov_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-03-11 08:35:20

From: "Beman Dawes" <bdawes_at_[hidden]>
> At 07:04 AM 3/8/2002, Peter Dimov wrote:
>
>  >The problem is simply that there is no such thing as a 'root' directory
> (in
>  >a portable world.) Under Windows, you can use \\192.168.0.1\sharename
and
>  >access the whole Internet if you like.
>
> The way that the current standard treats filenames is unlikely to
> change.  It is unspecified if any particular filename (like
> \\192.168.0.1\sharename) will work as hoped, or result in an error.  It
> will probably work on some systems, but not on others.  Even a name as
> apparently simple as "my_file.txt" may fail on a system which requires
> uppercase names or doesn't accept "." in a filename.
[...]

My point was that there should be no root_directory() function. Portable
code should not depend on the existence of a 'root' directory (or its
availability and/or 'iteratability'.)