port-filename and path canonicalization

[ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)]

Hi!

Andy Wingo <wingo@pobox.com> writes:

> I recently added a global fluid, %file-port-name-canonicalization, which
> defaults to #f. But if it's 'absolute, the port name of a file port will
> be canonicalized to the absolute path; or, if it's 'relative, the port
> name is the canonical name of the file, relative to the %load-path, or
> the file name as given otherwise.
>
> The intention was to allow the user to control (port-filename P), so
> that the user could find e.g. the absolute path corresponding to that
> port at the time that it was made.

My feeling is that ports shouldn’t have to deal with paths because
that’s a separate concern.  The %file-port-name-canonicalization fluid
seems like an inelegant hack to me.

When applications have special requirements about paths, then it should
be up to the application logic to deal with that.

Thanks,
Ludo’.