From: Tim Hammerquist <tim@...>
Date: 2003-07-26T10:23:35+09:00
Subject: Re: Quick way to find all drives in a windows box

Damphyr graced us by uttering:
>> Hope this helps,
> 
> Well, yes and no :) I was hoping to avoid Win32API but I'll
> settle for that now. Thanks,

I'm afraid, since drive letters are a misfeature specific to the
Win32 platform, that by definition you're going to have problems
finding a platform-independent interface to it, elegant or
otherwise.

This task is accomplished with Perl using Win32::DriveInfo, which
in turn requires Win32::API.  Likewise, this is served to Python
users via the win32api module.

Maybe if some more OSes appear that have the concept of drive
letters, and they gain a significant marketshare, we can offload
the Ruby interface to a 'Drives' module that internally
dispatches to Win32API, XsysAPI, YsysAPI, etc.; but I don't
expect it to be added to the Kernel namespace anytime soon.

Cheers,
Tim Hammerquist
-- 
To accuse others for one's own misfortunes is a sign of want of education.
To accuse onself shows that one's education has begun.
To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete.
    -- Epictetus