How to make Emacs paths in the minibuffer start at root (/) instead of $HOME (~)?

[MBR <mbr@arlsoft.com>]

There are times when I'd like to make an Emacs buffer's current 
directory available to be pasted into other applications.  I can do this 
by typing:

    C-x C-f              (this asks what file you want to open, and puts
    the current directory in the mini-buffer with the cursor at the end)
    C-a (move to the beginning of the minibuffer)
    C-k (kill the contents of the minibuffer, and as a side effect make
    the line you just killed available to be pasted)
    C-g (cancel the file open operation)

A bit of a kludge, I know, but it works.  Except that for subdirectories 
of my home directory the path starts at "~" instead of "/", and some of 
the applications I might want to paste it into don't understand "~".

Is there any way to force Emacs to always start paths in the minibuffer 
at "/" instead of starting some of them at "~"?

    Mark Rosenthal
    mbr@arlsoft.com