Platform independent pathnames

Hi all,

I'm writing a Perl program to take a directory containing a website
in a kind of "source" form and then (via various template files and
automatic hierarchic navbar creation) to output a directory containing
the complete site ready for upload.

A major part of the program is that it has to calculate relative paths
between all the pages, the graphics, and the navbar items, making sure
that they are written into the HTML in the standard Unix format. At the
same time it has to know where all the source and destination files are by
native absolute pathname, and be able to convert between the two freely.

The program will run on RISC OS during the initial development of
sites, but then I also wish to be able to give it to my clients so
that they can update their sites themselves - and they could be
running Windows, Linux, MacOS or anything else. Obviously Perl is
nicely portable, but I have a problem with how to perform all the
pathname manipulations and conversions in a platform independent
manner. It's rather a headache and your assistance would be much
appreciated.

I've had a look at File::Spec and children but do not seem to be able
to get it to work. I'm also confused by the automatic format conversion
the the RISC OS port does on pathnames. In a way this should make it
easier, but because I'm in a state of doubt already, I am starting to
doubt my understanding of the automatic conversion behaviour and scope.
Specific problems I've had are in the use of File::Spec->canonpath()
which does not seem to perform the tidying operations it promises.

I'd like to have this program written by Monday morning, but right now
I don't know where to start, because the treatment of pathnames is so
central to the whole thing. Can someone please explain to me what I
need to know. Thanks.

-- 
James Taylor <james (at) oakseed demon co uk>
Based in Hammersmith, London, UK.
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