Re: Don't concat directories to file names

[Juanma Barranquero]

On 6/25/07, Stefan Monnier <address@hidden> wrote:

> No: a path is a list of directories (as in the PATH, MANPATH EMACSLOADPATH,
> etc...).

You're right.

> What it returns is a file name.  The file referenced may be of
> directory kind (or symlink kind, or normal file kind, or even device kind),
> but it's still a file name.

It's not the first time I mix the terminology (Richard corrected me a
couple times before). I've honestly tried to remember it, but my mind
refuses, perhaps as a rection to the horror of supposing that
everything is a file, which a directory is not (in general, though I
know it *is* in Unix and its derivatives, and many other OSes). I'm
not going to enter an OS flamewar, but in my younger days I hacked
VAX/VMS, where a filename and a directory were clearly distinct :)

I understand (and promptly forget, alas) how "path" is used in Emacs.
But I unconsciously revert to the more widespread use, as documented
in the Wikipedia, among many other places: "A path is the general form
of a file or directory name, giving a file's name and its unique
location in a file system." The use of path brought to life from PATH
and other environment variables is an accident that would've been
averted had the original namer had the forethought of calling it
PATHS, which seems more logical...

At least I didn't find difficult to remember that frames are windows
and windows are panes (and yeah, I know, Emacs Was There First :)

locate-user-emacs-file, then, as ugly as it is.

            Juanma