Re: [boost] [filesystem] Major changes before standardization

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-11-13 12:12:50

At 09:16 PM 11/12/2004, Peter Dimov wrote:
 >Beman Dawes wrote:
 >> It might be messy to make the single path class approach work if
 >> Windows is viewed as a dual rather than wide O/S.
 >>
 >>   path p;
 >>   p /= "foo";
 >>   if ( some_bool ) p /= L"kühl";
 >>
 >>   if ( exists( p ) ) ... // use wide or narrow API depending on
 >> some_bool
 >> I guess path objects could keep track of whether or not they had ever
 >> been modified by an argument other than a char string, and use the
 >> Windows wide API. Seems messy...
 >
 >It's worse. Some versions of Windows (9x) are narrow-minded, but you 
don't
 >know that at compile time. ;-)

Damn! I always forget about Win 9x; I moved the NT at the first beta and 
never looked back.

So what happens in Win 9x when you use the wide API?

 >You pretty much have to treat Windows as a dual OS; it's impossible to
 >choose a native character type until the program is run.

That's a concern. The codepage issue you brought up is also a concern. I 
need to do some more research, clearly.

In thinking more about a single path class versus a class path template, 
the single path class approach looks really tough is you can't identify a 
single native character type. Yet the single path class approach is really 
appealing in many ways.

--Beman