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Date: Tue, 06 May 2008 18:24:11 -0400
From: "Lee D. Rothstein" <lee AT veritech DOT com>
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Subject: Re: how to change dir & POSIX
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Christopher Faylor wrote:

 >>> Note that this will give you a warning in Cygwin 1.7 since you are
 >>> using non-POSIX path names.

 >> I do hope there will be an option with an alternative environment
 >> variable setting that will direct the warning to /dev/null ?

 > You could try it and see:

 > http://cygwin.com/snapshots/

I appreciate the offer. However, I've had so much trouble with Vista
(especially with Cygwin) that I'll wait till I don't need two configs.

 >> The credo of Cygwin, it seems to me, has always been:

 >> Give Windoze users a shot at the richness and wisdom of GNU/UNIX
 >> without making their lives any more miserable than MBRH (Mr.  Bill and
 >> the Redmond Hordes) has already done.

 > Cygwin's goals are more-or-less summarized in the first few sentences on
 > the web site.

 > While it may be possible now to use Cygwin without understanding what
 > POSIX paths are or what Linux is, it is not a primary goal of the
 > project to make MS-DOS path names work transparently.  The fact that
 > they do work in most cases is fortunate but it is not a primary goal.
 > And, in many cases people get into trouble using MS-DOS paths because
 > they don't understand that the tools prefer POSIX.

I fully understand POSIX paths, 'mount's, 'ln' links, 'cygpath',
'chere', etc. (And BTB, IMHO, the GNU folks have been right more
often than the IEEE folks [POSIX] about how UNIX/GNU/Linux should
work. So, any attempts to enforce POSIX would fall on deaf ears
in my case [and I'm an ex-officer of IEEE]. Can't we turn on and
off POSIX correctness with a 'bash' switch?)

And too, I understand and agree with your point about Cygwin
users needing to understand the differences between Windoze and
GNUish paths of any "sect".

My point was:

  Cygwin rocks.
 
  At times, on Windoze, my work requires me to go between the
  native Win GUI apps and Cygwin terminal/console windows,
  intermittantly, as might also be the case with the other users
  (including a newbie) to which my response was directed.

  In such case, it's handy to be able to:

  cd 'x:\any windows\path will also\work'

  having copied "x:\any windows\path will also\work" from the path
  box of Explorer, or another WinGUI app.

  In the other direction:

  I wrote a script that "Windozes" the clipboard path:
  --
  #!/usr/bin/bash

  # wp: convert GNUish Path on Clipboard to Windows format

  cygpath --windows "$(getclip)"|putclip
  -- 
  Of course, after I do the copy to the clipboard, I must enter
  'wp' at a Cygwin prompt, before I paste the path into a Win GUI
  app "box".

  Actually, I've rethought my initial request--that you responded
  to--and realize that I could always handle the problem with a
  script/function of my own. So, as the esteemed Emily Letella
  used to say, "Never Mind!" [We miss you, Gilda.]
 
  However, even that approach requires that Windows paths are
  understood in perpetuity (of the Cygwin development).

  If that is not the case, it will make the usefulness of Cygwin
  to me, quite a lot less than it has been.
 
  Cygwin Rocks (if you have to live with Windoze)! (If you have a
  Mac, /for example/, you don't need Cygwin because the base
  platform is BSD!)


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