Re: [PATCH] Avoid most double slashes

[Graham Percival]

On Tue, Feb 01, 2011 at 09:13:59PM +0100, Francisco Vila wrote:
> 2011/2/1 Graham Percival <address@hidden>:
> >> -     $(buildscript-dir)/output-distance --create-images --output-dir 
> >> $(RESULT_DIR) input/regression/out-test-baseline input/regression/out-test/
> >> +     $(buildscript-dir)/output-distance --create-images --output-dir 
> >> $(RESULT_DIR) input/regression/out-test-baseline input/regression/out-test
> >
> > is out-test a file or a directory?  I mean, output-distance could
> > be writing a logfile called "out-test".
> 
> Yes.  But if out-test-baseline is a directory, also is out-test. The
> former came w/o slash, looks poor that the latter comes with.

That sounds like a good reason to add a slash to
out-test-baseline.

> > of course, the whole thing is a mess anyway, so you could argue
> > that it doesn't matter if we make it messier.
> 
> No, this is not my argument.  My aim is to be slightly more coherent
> and not put random, unneeded slashes at the end.

Those "random, unneeded slashes" lets a reader know immediately
that the name is a directory.  If there's no final slash, then how
do I know if it's supposed to be a directory or a file?  The only
way to tell is by memorizing the build directory layout.

> > It's something we can (and should) avoid if we ever reach a
> > critical mass of developers sufficiently fed up with the current
> > build system that we can realistically create a new one, but until
> > then, my instinct is to leave it alone.
> 
> That's why you didn't do it, my instinct was to improve it and that's
> why I did it.

I don't see this as an improvement.  I'm not saying that I want to
revert it -- I don't care that much.  But I definitely don't think
that this improved the readability of the makefiles.

Cheers,
- Graham