Re: HFS paths (was Tell Blocks Considered Harmful)
Re: HFS paths (was Tell Blocks Considered Harmful)
- Subject: Re: HFS paths (was Tell Blocks Considered Harmful)
- From: KOENIG Yvan <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 13:15:05 +0100
Le 21 déc. 2008 à 03:19, Axel Luttgens a écrit :
Le 20 déc. 08 à 19:34, KOENIG Yvan a écrit :
Le 20 déc. 2008 à 19:11, Axel Luttgens a écrit :
OK, but then why do I get this one:
(POSIX file "/Volumes/Data") as text
--> "Data"
So, let's have a small recap:
(POSIX file "/System") as text
--> "BootDisk:System"
(POSIX file "/System1") as text -- A non existing item (file or
folder)
--> "BootDisk:System1"
(POSIX file "/Volumes/Data") as text
--> "Data"
(POSIX file "/") as text
--> "BootDisk:"
Clearly, the boot disk appears as an exception wrt file -> string
coercion in AppleScript: differing conventions are applied
according to the target. This is perhaps a very desirable
behavior, but unless clearly justified and stated in the language
definition, it tends to appear at least slightly inconsistent.
I don't see any exception.
If the passed Unix path ends with a slash, we get an HFS path
ending with a colon.
If the passed Unix path doesn't end with a slash, we get an HFS
path without an ending colon.
It seems to be coherent.
Hello Yvan,
Yes, your approach is rather appealing, in the sense that it seems
to bring some order in the behavior described above; and it is no
impossible that the implementation of the file reference to text
coercion in part relies upon such a reasoning.
Now, saying that this path
/
and that path
/path/to/some/item/
both end with a slash is syntactically correct, but semantically
misleading.
Indeed, in a path such as
/path/to/some/item
the first slash represents the (current) root directory, and the
subsequent slashes are path separators.
Put in other words, THE slash and the other slashes really are to
be distinguished.
In fact, things would have appeared more clearly if a special
symbol had been defined for the root directory, for example "^".
Above paths would then have been written
^
^path/to/some/item/
and no one wouldn't be tempted anymore to say that they end with
the same symbol.
In the hope I managed to be comprehensible,
Axel
I'm not a pro so I may be wrong but I don't understand why the first
slash would can't have the behaviour of the late one when it is the
unique slash available.
Remember the Holy Books: "Les premiers seront les derniers".
When it is the unique slash, the one IS the current root directory
AND a path separator.
I didn't study Saussure's works but at don't see here a semantic oddity.
Yvan KOENIG _______________________________________________
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