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From: aglew%xenurus@gswd-vms.Gould.COM (Andy Glew)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: /bin/test and stat(2)
Message-ID: <9838@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 18-Oct-87 00:21:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-adm.9838
Posted: Sun Oct 18 00:21:45 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 18-Oct-87 13:16:39 EDT
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
Lines: 60

..> "" and "." as path elements.

I rather like giving equal rights to the empty string (I worship Dijkstra
and always right while(1) /*skip*/; instead of while(1);), but the big
lossage for the empty string is that (concat "" "/" "subdir") doesn't
work.
    By any rights pathnames beginning with "/" should really be relative
pathnames...

Obviously the thing to do is to redefine all pathname handling functions
to accept vectors of strings, like argv;

eg. 
    char *pathv[] = {
    	"",
    	"subdir",
    	(char *)0,
    };

    fd = openb(pathv,O_RDONLY,mode);

This has the pleasant effect of permitting "/" as a character in pathnames.
Equal rights to slashes, and other strings with criminal tendencies!

In fact, we should go even further, and permit nul characters in pathnames
by providing a length:

    #define LS(str) {(sizeof(str)-1),str}
    struct pathel {
    	int length;
    	char *str;
    }

    struct pathel pathv[] = {
    	LS(""),
    	LS("subdir with a null and / in it"),
    	(char *)0,
    };

But then we're discriminating against null strings, ie. string pointers
of value 0. Obviously, need a length on the pathv...

And you know, I might seriously be in favour of this if I worked every
day in a decent language like LISP, instead of in Stone Age C.


Smile, dammit!


Andy "Krazy" Glew. Gould CSD-Urbana.    USEnet:  ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!aglew
1101 E. University, Urbana, IL 61801    ARPAnet: aglew@gswd-vms.arpa

I always felt that disclaimers were silly and affected, but there are people
who let themselves be affected by silly things, so: my opinions are my own,
and not the opinions of my employer, or any other organisation with which I am
affiliated. I indicate my employer only so that other people may account for
any possible bias I may have towards my employer's products or systems.