From: mathew <meta@...>
Date: 2005-12-22T14:59:38+09:00
Subject: Re: getpasswd

Bertram Scharpf wrote:

>I would have written a path but I'm not sure how this
>problem is solved best.
>

I think the ideal thing would be to define an OS-independent 
object-oriented API, and then implement it for both Windows and Unixes. 
Make sure it implements Enumerable, of course. Then you could do things like

DirectoryServices.users.each {|u| puts u.name }

Over time it could be extended to LDAP, NIS, ...

I noticed the, ah, less-than-Ruby-like interface to Etc while I was 
documenting it. I considered hacking on it to at least make it return 
Arrays rather than have a non-reentrant "each call returns a new value" 
API, but I decided it would be better to hold out for something more 
ideal...


mathew