Re: More pathname madness with #p""

On 31/08/05, Todd Sabin <[email protected]> wrote:
> So an implementation should
> never give you a pathname with (:relative) as the directory component,
> and it seems perfectly legal for implementations to say that
> (make-pathname :directory '(:relative)) is either illegal, or means
> the same as (make-pathname :directory nil).
That sounds like a plausible interpretation, if indeed there is no
usage rule that distinguishes a directory NIL from a directory
'(:RELATIVE). But then, because of the read-write similarity
requirement, the canonicalization should happen within MAKE-PATHNAME,
that should either refuse '(:RELATIVE) and issue an error or (perhaps
more helpful to the user) check for it and canonicalize to NIL.

[ François-René ÐVB Rideau | Reflection&Cybernethics | http://fare.tunes.org ]
Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.
                -- Gandhi