RE: [boost] Filesystem Library: Formal Review

From: Glen Knowles (gknowles_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-09-17 21:50:22

From: Beman Dawes [mailto:bdawes_at_[hidden]]

> Let's see.  Here is the code we would like to write:
>
>     path p( argv[1], system_specific );
>     if ( p.xxx() ) p = initial_directory() << p;
>
> Say the user input is "foo" - p.xxx() should be true.
>
> Say the user input is "/foo" (or "c:/foo" on Windows) - then p.x() 
> should be false.
>
> So far, so good. Here comes the problem: what if on Windows the user 
> input is "/foo".  That needs to return false.

On windows what I want is actually more complex. Assuming a 
make_absolute(relative, base) I expect:

make_absolute("/foo", "/bar") -> "/foo"
make_absolute("foo", "/bar") -> "/bar/foo"
make_absolute("c:foo", "a:/bar") -> throw an error?
make_absolute("c:/foo", "a:/bar") -> "c:/foo"
make_absolute("/foo", "a:/bar") -> "a:/foo"

I understand that this is not at all portable, but it would be good
to have system specific hooks to handle this sort of thing.

Glen