proposal: change in ures_open behavior

Jitterbug 3841
Date: 25 Aug 2004
Exp: 31 Aug 2004

Currently,   "ures_open(u_getDataDirectory(),    ...  "   behaves as if 
you meant to call "ures_open(NULL, ..."  which is the proper way to 
specify ICU's data.
The problem is that the data directory is actually  a complex path and 
not a single directory.  Besides which, the data directory could 
actually be a path to application data and not ICU data.  So this 
special case behavior can cause unexpected results.

However, existing code which calls "ures_open(u_getDataDirectory()" 
will break if the special case is removed,  because the data directory 
may not actually be where ICU data is stored.

I propose to remove the special case, and require all callers to pass 
in either NULL or "ICUDATA" as the path , if ICU data is requested.   
Applications should be appending their search path to the data 
directory path, and calling with the short package name of their 
application such as "ures_open("myapp", ...".