[boost] Filesystem I18n comments

From: Martin (adrianm_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-12-28 04:56:41

1. Why "directory_iterator->exists()" instead of "exists(directory_iterator)"

2. Any chance of having a non-throwing version of directory_iterator (similar 
to status). Since such a common error like not having access to a directory 
throws an exception, every directory_iterator construction needs a try/catch. 
The recursive_directory_iterator is kind of useless since it will stop as soon 
as you get an "access denied".
(Maybe a portable can_be_iterated function can be added)

3. The documentation doesn't say how other_flag is supposed to work. If an 
implementation adds more flags, will other_flag be set for these?

4. A suggestion is to overload exists, is_directory etc for status flags and 
let the error condition be statusflags == 0. (or make status_flags a class 
with a bool conversion)

In the code you could then write like

if (status_flags s = status(path)) {
  if (!exists(s) || !is_directory(s))
    cout << "bad directory";
}
else
  cout << "error";

In the current implementation you need to remember if you should use == or & 
when checking the status flags.

status_flags s = status(path);
if (s == error_flag) // must test with == here
  cout << "error";
else if ((s & directory_flag) == 0) // must test with & here
  cout << "bad directory";