How to prevent Emacs from translating beginning of file path into "~"?

[MBR <mbr@arlsoft.com>]

The Emacs command ^x-^f (find-file) fills the mini-buffer with the full 
path to the current directory and then waits for you to type the 
filename.  I often I find it a useful way to copy the current directory 
to the system's clipboard so I can paste the path into some other 
application.  For example, in Emacs I'll type:

    ^x-^f (put path to current directory into mini-buffer)
    ^a             (go to beginning of line)
    ^k             (kill from beginning to end of mini-buffer, with the
    side effect of putting that string into the system clipboard)
    ^g             (cancel out of mini-buffer)

At this point I can paste the path into any non-Emacs application by 
typing CMD-v (in OS-X) or CTRL-v (in Windows or Linux).

But there's a problem. Current versions of Emacs (I'm currently running 
Emacs 24.3.1 under OS-X) try to be smart and replace the beginning of 
the path with "~" if it matches the logged in user's home directory.  
Unfortunately, some applications don't understand paths that begin with "~".

Is it possible to configure Emacs to put the full path (beginning with 
"/") into the mini-buffer, rather than just the path from the home 
directory (beginning with "~")?

        Mark Rosenthal
        mbr@arlsoft.com