From: Holden Glova <dsafari@...>
Date: 2002-01-12T07:27:20+09:00
Subject: Re: Dir.entries have no home

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On Sat, 12 Jan 2002 03:44, Ron Jeffries wrote:
> Chet and I were writing a little code manager yesterday and we wrote
> this code:
>
>    def filesUnderManagement
>       names = (Dir.entries(@directoryName).
>           select { | each | ! (/.bak/ =~ each) }).sort
>       names.reject { |each| FileTest.directory?(each) }
>    end
>
> The idea was to have all the file names that weren't named *.bak
> (which is a thing TextPad does) and weren't directories.
>
> So this seemed like reasonable code and passed all our tests. However,
> as you may have noticed, being smarter than I am, the second line for
> rejecting directories is looking at each name in the current working
> directory, not the directory named in @directoryName.
>
> This worked on my machine, but not on Chet's, so he found the problem:
> we have to attach the directory name back to the file name before we
> test it.
>
> The same is true for opening it, and doing other things to it.
>
> So it seems to us that the names that come out of Dir.entries are,
> well, bad. They have lost their connection to their home, and as we
> all know, when we lose our home we have lost everything.
>
> Now one way I have dealt with this issue in the past is to go around
> changing the working directory to whatever directory I'm thinking
> about, but that seems to me to be a hack and a bug waiting to happen.
>
> I seem to recall that VisualWorks or some Smalltalk had a Filename
> object and (I'm guessing) that object knew its full name or directory
> or equivalent.

I too have found file operations to cumbersome. It seems to me like my mind 
has to switch from this beautiful, OO, zen like programming flow to something 
that all of a sudden causes pain. For some reason file type/related 
operations often do tend to be awkward in many languages, let alone languages 
that attempt to platform independent.

I feel your pain Ron, and I too am looking for a better way of 
handling/viewing this area. If you find a nicer solution please do let me 
know!

- -- 
Signed,
Holden Glova
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