From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Juanma Barranquero" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Don't concat directories to file names Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2007 16:51:02 +0200 Message-ID: References: <87k5ty66nq.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <86wsxxvief.fsf@ketchup.de.uu.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1182783078 5059 80.91.229.12 (25 Jun 2007 14:51:18 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2007 14:51:18 +0000 (UTC) Cc: rms@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: "Stefan Monnier" Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Jun 25 16:51:16 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1I2puL-0006kU-Vy for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 25 Jun 2007 16:51:14 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1I2puL-0001zO-Co for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:51:13 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I2puH-0001z8-QE for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:51:09 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I2puC-0001yL-7R for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:51:08 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1I2puC-0001yI-4C for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:51:04 -0400 Original-Received: from wx-out-0506.google.com ([66.249.82.234]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1I2puB-0001EZ-NR for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:51:03 -0400 Original-Received: by wx-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id h26so1522672wxd for ; Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:51:03 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=cmNFPQ/NKLFkIYQOJ/vqljDvg4OpJSNwljvM2m+owWE99/S0kUbON1cpEaK7G6dvsMRjtc3cSF5qAT2NM+ID+gsUINBdIndsomrpMCA7cl8Cyz+uQ1ec8EWEmYn9bB+RjRtHLjZBYMYE+8R8xDMlINP0c2kDB8TdckmhIRLMMTY= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=HgMGLM5qHEt2Tvxu2qmgOEvOxa3GN2KqcTbT3oGiset+PBHR7DLZ92hAn0ku4qJcuXlRgzdFusGTS4kKrCqOIlBRBHtKrFjuQQ109/ig+/wdx1QPNsgLNf9Zjtk6T3QHT2rj4HhlkkfKQMZ1k+DWO49CgU6rMOSgswGiytwCfR4= Original-Received: by 10.90.96.7 with SMTP id t7mr4212795agb.1182783062779; Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:51:02 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: by 10.90.87.8 with HTTP; Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:51:02 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: Content-Disposition: inline X-detected-kernel: Linux 2.4-2.6 (Google crawlbot) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:73824 Archived-At: On 6/25/07, Stefan Monnier wrote: > No: a path is a list of directories (as in the PATH, MANPATH EMACSLOADPATH, > etc...). You're right. > What it returns is a file name. The file referenced may be of > directory kind (or symlink kind, or normal file kind, or even device kind), > but it's still a file name. It's not the first time I mix the terminology (Richard corrected me a couple times before). I've honestly tried to remember it, but my mind refuses, perhaps as a rection to the horror of supposing that everything is a file, which a directory is not (in general, though I know it *is* in Unix and its derivatives, and many other OSes). I'm not going to enter an OS flamewar, but in my younger days I hacked VAX/VMS, where a filename and a directory were clearly distinct :) I understand (and promptly forget, alas) how "path" is used in Emacs. But I unconsciously revert to the more widespread use, as documented in the Wikipedia, among many other places: "A path is the general form of a file or directory name, giving a file's name and its unique location in a file system." The use of path brought to life from PATH and other environment variables is an accident that would've been averted had the original namer had the forethought of calling it PATHS, which seems more logical... At least I didn't find difficult to remember that frames are windows and windows are panes (and yeah, I know, Emacs Was There First :) locate-user-emacs-file, then, as ugly as it is. Juanma