Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]
Groups > comp.lang.java.programmer > #9896
| From | Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> |
|---|---|
| Newsgroups | comp.lang.java.programmer |
| Subject | Re: A strange behaviour of a File property |
| Date | 2011-11-12 21:11 -0500 |
| Organization | A noiseless patient Spider |
| Message-ID | <j9n919$q0q$1@dont-email.me> (permalink) |
| References | (1 earlier) <slrnjbqj37.fvg.avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> <j9kion$7o7$1@dont-email.me> <slrnjbrpia.fvg.avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> <4ebef267$0$290$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> <slrnjbu6hr.fvg.avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> |
On 11/12/2011 8:15 PM, Andreas Leitgeb wrote:
> Arne Vajhøj<arne@vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>> On 11/11/2011 10:21 PM, Andreas Leitgeb wrote:
>>> Eric Sosman<esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> wrote:
>>>> IMHO, Java errs in exposing any "path separator" at all, because
>>>> it just encourages string-bashing. Note that in some file systems
>>>> there is no such thing as a "path separator;" on one such I had
>>>> files with names like
>>>> SYS$DISK:[USERS.ERIC.PROJECT]README.TXT;22
>>> Such beasts still exist in the wild?
>
>> $ type DISK2:[ARNE]HELLOWORLD.JAVA;1
> [...]
>
> This doesn't yet answer the "in the wild"-part: Is that a machine
> still in productive use, or is it merely running under a VAX-emulator
> on a PC (just for playing around)? :-)
>
> Anyway, as it seems (gathered from googled pages), java is able to
> translate paths like "/disk2/arne/helloworld.java" to what the
> system understands, so there'd not really be much of a need for a Java
> programmer to explicitly deal with those path construction pecularities.
Speaking as a person who wrote code that tried to mediate
between VMS ("structured") file names and Unix ("just glob it") paths,
I am here to tell you that there are many subtle traps. Version numbers
inevitably got garbled, if not "in translation" then "in manipulation"
on the other side of the fence. The fact that the parent directory of
SYS$DISK:[USERS.ERIC.PROJECT]README.TXT;22
was
SYS$DISK:[USERS.ERIC]PROJECT.DIR;1
baffled innumerable Unixoid programs that thought they could just "take
everything before the rightmost separator" to get the parent's name.
Anybody who thinks the mapping is half a day's work has got another
think coming -- and weeks of unplanned labor, too. I've got the scars.
Common LISP supported a richer filename abstraction, one that could
handle Unix and DOS and Apollo and Mac and VMS and probably others I wot
not of. Steele was certainly aware of LISP's capability (he made money
off a LISP book, after all), so Java's blinkered view is puzzling.
IMHO, File is the second-sloppiest "everyday" core Java class,
losing out only to Date (if "losing" is the right word).
--
Eric Sosman
esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid
Back to comp.lang.java.programmer | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread
A strange behaviour of a File property alelvb@inwind.it - 2011-11-11 05:45 -0800
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-11-11 07:34 -0800
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property alelvb@inwind.it - 2011-11-11 09:28 -0800
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-11-11 14:17 -0800
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property alelvb@inwind.it (Alexo) - 2011-11-12 15:04 +0100
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-11-12 09:15 -0500
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property alelvb@inwind.it (Alexo) - 2011-11-12 16:17 +0100
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Zlatko Đurić <zladuric@gmail.com> - 2011-11-12 16:09 +0100
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-11-12 10:13 -0500
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-11-11 16:25 +0000
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property alelvb@inwind.it - 2011-11-11 09:42 -0800
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-11-11 13:24 -0500
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-11-11 14:13 -0800
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-11-11 20:38 -0500
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-11-12 03:21 +0000
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-11-12 08:26 -0500
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-11-12 22:09 +0000
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-11-12 17:40 -0500
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-11-13 01:28 +0000
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-11-12 20:42 -0500
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-11-13 12:15 +0000
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-11-13 12:42 +0000
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-11-13 13:06 +0000
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-11-12 17:25 -0500
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-11-13 01:15 +0000
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-11-12 20:40 -0500
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-11-13 12:42 +0000
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-11-12 21:11 -0500
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-11-13 20:50 +0000
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-11-14 08:18 -0500
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-11-14 17:38 +0000
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-11-14 21:51 -0500
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-11-15 14:17 +0000
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-11-15 22:20 -0500
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-11-16 12:14 +0000
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-11-16 08:10 -0500
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Daniel Pitts <newsgroup.nospam@virtualinfinity.net> - 2011-11-11 19:46 -0800
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Owen Jacobson <angrybaldguy@gmail.com> - 2011-11-14 00:24 -0500
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-11-13 22:00 -0800
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2011-11-12 05:00 -0800
Re: A strange behaviour of a File property Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-11-12 09:15 -0500
csiph-web