Proposal for std.path replacement

[Lars T. Kyllingstad]

On Mon, 07 Mar 2011 10:25:21 +0000, Regan Heath wrote:

> On Sun, 06 Mar 2011 08:37:15 -0000, Rainer Schuetze <r.sagitario at gmx.de>
> wrote:
> 
>> Looks good overall. I have a few comments and nitpicks though:
>>
>>  >   basename("dir/subdir/")             -->  "subdir"
>>  >   directory("dir/subdir/")      -->  "dir"
>>
>> Is this what everybody expects? I'm not sure, but another possibility
>> would be to treat these as if "dir/subdir/." is passed. What is the
>> result of directory("/") or directory("d:/")?
> 
> ?? I would expect:
> 
>    directory("dir/subdir/")      -->  "dir/subdir"
> 
> as subdir _is_ a dir, not a file, as shown by the trailing slash.  If it
> was:
> 
>    directory("dir/subdir")      -->  "dir"
> 
> as subdir is perhaps not a directory, as there is no trailing slash.
> 
> I realise this means the trailing slash becomes important, but it kinda
> is important as it does tell us when something is definitely a
> directory.

I don't think it does, or rather, I don't think there is such a thing as 
"definitely a directory".  What about a symlink to a directory, for 
instance?  On one hand, it *is* a file that contains a reference to a 
directory, and on the other, in most respects it *acts like* a directory.

You can even argue that a "file" is simply the term used for a node in 
the filesystem tree, and that "directory" is a special kind of file that 
contains a list of other files.  This terminology is pretty standard in 
*NIX land, at least.  (Just google "everything is a file".)


> Alternately, we could ignore the distinction between file and directory
> - as we're essentially just parsing strings here - and have two
> functions:
> 
> lastComponent("dir/subdir/")  -> "subdir" lastComponent("dir/subdir")  
> -> "subdir"
> 
> allButLastComponent("dir/subdir/") -> "dir/"
> allButLastComponent("dir/subdir")  -> "dir/"

That's how it's done now, and how I think it should be.  The two paths 
"dir/subdir" and "dir/subdir/" both refer to the same object in the file 
system, namely "subdir".  baseName gives you the name of the object 
referred to by a path, while dirName gives you the directory containing 
said object.  Whether that object is a file or a directory is 
irrelevant.  (And if you need to know what it is, there is always 
std.file.isDir and isFile.)

-Lars