Re: System.FilePath propsal (Was: Cabal feedback notes)

Doing a quick scan... Generally it looks pretty good, but without actually trying to use it I can't be sure. I have some small questions: 1. How are multiple extensions handled? (e.g. foo.tar.gz) I think this is catered for, with the final extension being picked off. 2. How does path joining work in this case: joinPaths C:/root/path/file.ext altPath/file2.ext2 i.e. is "file.ext" discarded? 3. What is the purpose of commonInit? Also, a very small point: I forgot that FilePath is defined in the prelude... maybe a comment to this effect on the module export list? ... [later] I tend to agree with the comments about case normalization. maybe better to have a path comparison function that takes system-dependent equivalences into account? I'm rather taken by the approach that Peter Simons suggests [1] (abstracting the path composition), but I suspect there are more details to be worked out there. It also makes my earlier suggestion [2] of using a URI-based representation as a common abstraction seem slightly less radical. I also note Simon's comments on this (don't do it yet_) are persuasive. I'll reserve my campaign to unify filenames and URIs for the "ultimate" FilePath abstraction ;-) [1] http://www.haskell.org//pipermail/libraries/2004-October/002593.html [2] http://www.haskell.org//pipermail/libraries/2004-August/002416.html #g -- At 06:33 26/10/04 -0700, Krasimir Angelov wrote:

--- Simon Marlow wrote:

...

Last time this came up I asked for a concrete proposal, but no-one came forward with one. I'd do it myself, but I'm kind of busy right now. Would someone care to whip up a list of functions & signatures?

Ok. Here is one concrete proposal for System.FilePath. It contains nearly all useful FilePath functions from Cabal, .Net's System.IO.Path and Python's OS.Path. There are only few exceptions:

- findBinary from Cabal isn't included here. I think that System.Directory is more appropriate place. - OS.Path provides expanduser function which replaces ~ and ~user with the right home directories. I am not sure how to do this in platform independent way. Maybe on Windows this function must be identity. - OS.Path provides expandvar function which replaces $var and ${var} with the value of the corresponding environment variable. I am not sure wheter this function should be there since it can be used to replace values in any text. Maybe System.Environment is better place for it. Another issue is whether it must replace $var or %var% under Windows. %var% is more natural for Windows.

Some function names are slightly different from those in Cabal. Propsals for future extensions and better function names are welcome.

Cheers, Krasimir

__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail _______________________________________________ Libraries mailing list Libraries@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/libraries

------------ Graham Klyne For email: http://www.ninebynine.org/#Contact