Re: [boost] Filesystem Library mini-review

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-12-16 12:23:09

At 11:58 AM 12/16/2002, David Abrahams wrote:

 >Beman Dawes <bdawes_at_[hidden]> writes:
 >
 >> At 03:05 AM 12/16/2002, Vladimir Prus wrote:
 >>
 >>  >Beman Dawes wrote:
 >>  >> A large number of changes to the Filesystem Library have been
 >> committed >> to the CVS main trunk.
 >>  >
 >>  >Hi Beman,
 >>  >
 >>  >I've some comments:
 >>  >
 >>  >1. The name 'root_directory' is confusing for me. 'directory' implies
 >>  >    you can stick anywhere dir there, whilie only "/" is allowed.
 >>  >    Unfortunetely, nothing better comes to mind.
 >>
 >> I've agonized over the names of many of the functions, and feel that
 >> the current names are a real improvement over earlier names. Both the
 >> individual names, and the names as they relate to one another are
 >> better.
 >>
 >> Nevertheless, if anyone can come up with still better names I'll
 >> welcome the improvement:-)
 >
 >Given the remarks above, "root" might be an improvement over
 >"root_directory"... though I admit I don't have a clue about the
 >context.

The context is important. Really important.

The complete root is defined in the grammar as being made up of the 
root-name and the root-directory. (The root-name is always "" on 
single-root systems like POSIX.)

Accordingly, the functions to extract those grammar element individually as 
strings are named root_name() and root_directory(). The function to extract 
those two grammar elements composed into a path is named root_path(). This 
is consistent with the naming scheme for the other decomposition functions, 
which also match the names used in the grammar.

So it really doesn't work to change just a single name out of context; the 
whole picture, including the names used in the grammar, needs to be 
considered.

--Beman