From: Michael Marcin (mike.marcin_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-07-03 21:31:42
David Abrahams wrote:
> Michael Marcin wrote:
>> Doesn't leaf serve 2 functions? If the path points to a directory it
>> returns most derived directory
>
> It does not return a directory. We don't have a type that can represent
> a directory. We only have paths and strings.
>
>> (to make a bad analogy to class
>> hierarchy). If the path points to a file it returns the filename.
>
> No. In either case it returns the name of the thing that the path
> points to.
Sorry I meant name of a directory or name of a file.
From the filesystem doc's index page:
"leaf() returns a string which is a copy of the last (closest to the
leaf, farthest from the root) file or directory name in the path object."
I don't believe any of the functions need to touch the filesystem with
the possible exception of parent which could be relaxed to just return
path + "../" since at least on windows if you ../ yourself above the
root of your current drive you just end up at the root of the current drive.
Or do you mean that you can't determine if it is a path to a file
because files can look just like directories if they have no extensions
and directories can contain periods?
That is annoying but it seems like a trailing slash at the end of a path
would be enough to differentiate paths to files from paths to directories.
Thanks,
Micahel Marcin