Subject: RE: Repost, different list...File::Spec, cygwin, Syntactic vs. Semantic path analysis
From: Robert Collins <[email-masked]>
To: "linda w (cyg)" <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: 09 Jan 2003 13:29:58 +1100

Sorry for butting in again, but you have a factual error that needs
highlighting.

On Thu, 2003-01-09 at 13:18, linda w (cyg) wrote:

> > Understanding that double slashes at the
> > beginning of a path are special is good sense for any 
> > portable program.
> ---
> 	There you go again, making relative assertions about "good/bad"
> again.  It's common practice to define a $(ROOT)/foobar underwhich to
> build or install a program.  It is common to have ROOT=/ when you want
> to install it on a live machine.  It is *expected* that double slashes
> "//" will be treated as "/".  Thinking "//" is special only shows the
> corrupting influence Win32 has had on your thinking.  If you grew up
> on unix, you'd know that "//" = "/".

Whoa. POSIX uses // as a imeplementation specific prefix for network
paths. The posix 'dirname' algorithm EXPLICITLY leaves the use of // as
implementation specific. Go check it up you want proof.

Growing up on unix does NOT mean // == /. If you assume that *anywhere*
you will limit your programs portability (specifically, you are
IMMEDIATELY non-posix).

> Dogma is an anesthetization of "critical thinking".

Just curious, if that is the case, why do you make vehement assertions
of your own?

Rob
-- 
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