Re: [MacPerl] Porting File::PathConvert

[Barrie Slaymaker <rbs@telerama.com>]

"Brian L. Matthews" wrote:
> 
> That isn't correct behavior for /name/.., because if name is a symlink,
> /name/.. may not be /.
> 
Chris Nandor mentioned it too. 

It really depends on the user's point of view. They may well expect
it to be /, and be unhappy when they end up /somewhere/else/entirely.
Cancelling /symlink/.. may break when dealing with paths in a 
physical sense, but it works in the logical sense. The approach 
I'm taking deals with them in a logical sense. Both are valid 
and have their uses. There's always File::Spec::cat_dir() for
dealing with them in a physical sense.

In many cases, symlinks are used to add convenience or hide
complexity, and are meant to be 'transparent'. Certainly the 
average user doesn't consider symlinks when cding around
a directory hierarchy. Under Unix some (usually more recent 
vintage) shells are dual-mode, and default to logical mode,
presumably for this very reason.

Having worked a lot on one of the most heavy (ab)users of 
symbolic links in the known universe, SCO OpenServer, 
I can attest to the fact that working with systems where symbolic
links / aliases whisk you away to parts unknown unexpectedly is
extremely annoying.

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