Re: [boost] Re: Re: Re: Re: [filesystem] status()ifneitherfilenordirectory?

From: Mathew Robertson (mathew.robertson_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-05-09 20:17:52

> >> However it is implemented, it should be 'named' so that it is
> >> obvious to a person reading over the code, that the test is checking
> >> for a specific capability.
> >
> > Agreed. That's part of the point I'm trying to make with Peter.
> 
> The is_other test _isn't checking_ for a specific capability! That's the 
> whole point! 

apologies... when I said "... the test is checking for a specific capablity." it came across wrong.

What I meant was, if we have code like:

if (is_file("/some/path/")) {
  ...
}

[ where "/some/path/" is a directory in the traditional sense ]

The 'checking' is not "does the capability exist" -> rather "is the capability true",  where false would be a result of the platform not supporing a valid implementation of is_file() or it isn't an actual file.

That said, these is_blah()'s are really tri-state values - not boolean.  Should their specification be:

int is_file(const char *)

where the return values can be:

-1  error, and errno is set with the error value
0   false
1   true

?

Mathew