Re: [MacPerl] More on the lack of path handling routines

[Matthias Ulrich Neeracher <neeri@iis.ee.ethz.ch>]

Daniel Macks <dmacks@netspace.org> writes:
In message <199608190350.XAA08310@netspace.org> you write:
>Scott_Ananian@sil.org wrote:
>>Okay, enough grousing for now.  For this present project, it looks like
>>we'll be
>>able to make do with determining system type by examining @INC closely, and
>>define a path separator based on that.  But I was hoping to find a more
>>portable/universal solution.
>
>Looking at @INC mightg not be reliable, since NTPerl can deal with
>forward-slashes as well as backward slashes. My @INC has some of both,
>including some paths that seem to mix both slashtypes.

Since I'm currently doing military service, I didn't have much time to
get involved in discussions on the mailing list, so here's a few thoughts
on this thread:
 
 - Scott's remark about the lack of a path handling library is absolutely
   correct, and noted as such. As far as I know, Kenneth Albanowski and/or
   Charles Bailey are working on such a library.
 - His point about line terminators in the parser was well taken. I've 
   inspected the perl sources to see what it would take to make the perl
   parser recognize all end of line styles (CR, LF, CRLF), but with the 
   current I/O architecture, that's not possible in an efficient way.
   Perl will soon switch to an sfio based architecture, and then, this project
   is worth another look.
 - Intuiting the OS from directory tests, as Daniel suggests, is somewhat too
   risky (one day you might meet a freak Mac with a directory named "/") and 
   not necessary anyway: Just use the $^O variable. 

I've made a lot of progress over the weekend. Expect considerable improvements
in the Help system RSN.

Matthias

-----
Matthias Neeracher   <neeri@iis.ee.ethz.ch>   http://www.iis.ee.ethz.ch/~neeri
  "Then anyone who leaves behind him a written manual, and likewise
   anyone who receives it, in the belief that such writing will be
   clear and certain, must be exceedingly simple-minded..."
                                                -- Plato, _Phaedrus_