From: Ross Bamford <rosco@...>
Date: 2005-12-31T20:04:10+09:00
Subject: Re: Path Separator and Windows

On Thu, 29 Dec 2005 21:48:00 -0000, Bob Showalter  
<bob_showalter@taylorwhite.com> wrote:

> Justin Johnson wrote:
>> Is there a reason File::SEPARATOR isn't set to \ to begin with for  
>> Windows?  Even if the Windows API accepts a /, \ is standard for the  
>> Windows command line and executing commands with / in paths passed as  
>> args fails.  Of course I can just do my own substitutions, but it seems  
>> like this could be improved.
>

I doubt it - they'd probably need to rewrite it (again).

Oh, sorry, you meant Ruby?

;)

> I'm not sure why it works the way it does; perhaps Matz will weigh in.  
> If you look at the source (file.c), the whole business is really quite  
> messy.
>
> How did DOS (and then Windows) ever decide to use backslash I wonder?
>

Protect, _never_ share, integration is evil. Back then, anyway. Maybe they  
get it now.

> And a pox on "drive letters" while we're at it! :-)
>
> The Unix approach seems so much more logical to me...
>

Me too, as I sit with my Laptop, homes and /usr/local mounted via NFS,  
music playing from /dev/cdrom and my desktop just the way I like it - the  
original roaming profile? AFAIR there aren't even any symlinks over in  
winland, and local stuff _still_ gets mixed with the system...

(p.s. I don't want to argue with any Windows users, this is just  
light-hearted jibing about a light-hearted OS ;> Used to use DOS myself,  
time in the trenches, jumpers for goalposts, etc.)

-- 
Ross Bamford - rosco@roscopeco.remove.co.uk