Re: find-library-name fails if file (with no extension) exists.

[David Kastrup]

Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> writes:

>> From: David Kastrup <address@hidden>
>> Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 23:23:37 +0100
>> Cc: Andreas Schwab <address@hidden>, Romain Francoise <address@hidden>,
>>      Emacs Devel <address@hidden>
>> 
>> Having different file names map to the same file is a recipe for
>> trouble.
>
> Then links are a recipe for trouble.

They certainly are, and this includes `.' and `..'.  However, they
offer a reasonable tradeoff between trouble and utility.

And they don't violate the principle that listing a directory will
tell you all legal _file names_ available from that directory.  I can
decide whether the file `/fdsaf/dsafd/asfd/daffa' can exist by looking
at the directory listing of `/fdsaf/dsafd/asfd/'.

That is not possible with case insensitive file systems unless I have
a function that is guaranteed to compare file names exactly in the
same manner as the operating system does.

And if I have such a function, it might mean that I can't use file
names as an index into a hash data structure unless I have a hash
function that maps operating-system-identical file names onto
identical keys.

And so forth and so on.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum