Re: unclear documentation for directory-sep-char

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: David Kastrup <address@hidden>
> Date: 10 Jan 2003 22:47:54 +0100
> 
> If you use the Windows command shell for executing commands, it will
> not accept forward slashes AFAIK for its commands like `cd'.  Most
> programs will also not output forward slashes when printing paths.

If I understand correctly, you have two problems:

  - how to handle file names output by Windows programs
  - how to send commands with file names to a Windows shell

I believe the first one can be dealt with by running the file names
through expand-file-name, or, if that doesn't work, by simply
replacing ?\\ with ?/ conditioned on system-type being windows-nt.

The second problem can be solved by running the file names through
convert-standard-file-name.  On Posix systems it's a no-op, while on
Windows it will convert forward slashes to backslashes if the shell
in use requires that.

If the above doesn't help, could you please provide specific examples
of the problems you have to deal with, together with Lisp code
fragments where those problems happen?

> I have a reputation to lose.  I can't have clueless Windows users
> report to all bulletin boards that my packages don't work.  Don't
> make it harder than necessary.

I thought I was making it _easier_ by trying to help you solve the
problems you have.  If you feel I'm making it harder, perhaps I should
stop responding to this thread, before we (again) engage in some
futile fight.

Anyway, directory-sep-char is the wrong tool for the job since its
support in Emacs primitives is extremely inconsistent and cannot be
made consistent without rewriting lots of Emacs code.  That is why it
was decided to deprecate and remove this variable.