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

On Tue, Oct 26, 2004 at 11:43:40AM -0700, Krasimir Angelov wrote:

--- Andrew Pimlott wrote:

...

You don't seem to address the problem of volumes or drives (a:, c:). I don't think you can punt this.

The drives are handled implicitly. They are always part of directory name.

Well, for example you couldn't write a file picker with this API, because you can't ask for all the roots. Maybe that's enough, because pathInits can be used to find the root for a given file (the first element of pathInits being the root).

...

Be very explicit in the documentation about what your model of a path is. Most libraries implictly rely upon some form of unix conventions, without pinning them down. I find it hard to use File::Spec without trial and error.

The Haddock documentation can be improved.

This isn't mostly about the documentation, it's about having a model in mind when you design the library. What's your model of a path? For example, what should splitFileName "/" (unix) or splitFileName "." be, and why? I can't think of any answers that are consistent with the type (FilePath -> (String, String)). Andrew