Re: file-truename, convert-standard-filename

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Lennart Borgman <address@hidden>
> Date: Sat, 6 Feb 2010 01:17:06 +0100
> Cc: Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden>, address@hidden
> 
> I think the description in
> 
>   (info "(elisp) Standard File Names")
> 
> is wrong.

``Wrong'' means it is in error or inaccurate.  Can you please point
out these errors and inaccuracies in the documentation?

> It is written in a GNU/Linux centric way

No, it isn't.  It _recommends_ to use file names that are valid or
convenient on Posix systems, and let `convert-standard-filename' take
care of systems where there are more stringent limitations on what can
be a valid file name.  That's not ``GNU/Linux centric'', that's
GNU/Linux favorable, which is hardly a surprise in a program such as
Emacs.

> and forgets about
> the necessary file name syntax translation that
> convert-standard-filename also does to make the file name fit the OS.

Which translations it forgets?  And why is that important, anyway?  If
one wants to know _exactly_ what the function does, she should read
the sources, because there's no easy way (and no particular need, IMO)
to describe its precise transformations on each and every OS where it
has a non-trivial definition.

> Perhaps the function from the beginning just did the expansion that
> Stefan pointed to, but that is not true any more. (And if it was we
> would surely need another function to do the file name syntax
> translation.)

I'm not sure what are you talking about.  Is this about the `cygdrive'
handling?  If so, FWIW I think this is a bastardly use of this
interface; it should have been a separate function using a separate
mechanism.  This functionality was added to this function only because
otherwise the code which deals with file names elsewhere in Emacs
would become uglier, and because a fancier mechanism (like file
handlers) was not considered worth it.

In any case, why does this detail matter?