Re: It works!

[Rob Kendrick <lua-l@...>]

On Sun, Aug 08, 2004 at 01:16:52AM +0000, David Given wrote:
> Alex Sandro Queiroz e Silva wrote:
> [...]
> >>Just one thing, though. Can I suggest that Lua *must* provide a 
> >>directory listing function as part of its core functionality?
> >
> >    You don't have to go back further than a week in the archives to  
> >read about this... :-)
> 
> The short summary is that you can't, because there's no standard way of 
> doing it that's truly portable across all platforms. And, 'all 
> platforms' includes weird and wacky embedded systems that don't support 
> any IO.
> 
> Let me put it like this: do you use /, \, :, . or <other> to seperate 
> path elements?

And even more excitingly, do you use / or $ as the root directory, or ..
or ^ to go up a level? :)  (RISC OS must have the most bizarre paths
I've ever personally seen.  ADFS::HardDisc4.$.Applications.!Zap for
example)

There's a reason the ANSI C library distances itself from directory
structures.

-- 
Rob Kendrick, Pepperfish Ltd.         +44 (0)845 226 4146  www.pepperfish.net
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