From: Jeremy Maitin-Shepard (jbms_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-02-02 14:19:11
Beman Dawes <bdawes_at_[hidden]> writes:
> How should size( "foo" ) behave if "foo" is a directory?
> 1) Throw. The function should be renamed file_size().
> [snip]
> I'm inclined to go with (1), naming the function "file_size", and then add a
> function later to get the number of entries in a directory. But only if there is
> enough demand. I don't want to clutter up the library with a lot of seldom used
> functions that can be trivially written as user code.
I agree that (1) is the best option. Wanting to know the number of
entries in a directory is less common, and can be written as:
distance(directory_iterator(ph), directory_iterator())
The user may also wish to know the recursive size of all entries in the
directory, but that is probably better handled by a more generic path
visitor system.
-- Jeremy Maitin-Shepard