From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-07-04 08:34:54
David Abrahams wrote:
> Michael Marcin wrote:
>> 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.
>
> I don't like the idea of adding "file or directory" semantics to paths.
> Paths are just paths. What about symlinks? What about devices?
> Should we find a way to represent that information in a path too?
I agree. It is a firm principal of the design that "paths are just
paths". None of the path member functions go to the file system. There
might not even be a file system; paths are sometimes manipulated by
programs for purposes other than immediate use.
A trailing slash at the end of a path is preserved in case a particular
application distinguishes that as a special case. But no
Boost.Filesystem functions do so.
--Beman