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Re: Issues 584 & 603 -- / vs. \

From: Martijn Boekhorst <subversion_at_boekhorst.net>
Date: 2002-06-25 23:59:23 CEST

Quoting =?UTF-8?B?QnJhbmtvIMSMaWJlag==?= <brane@xbc.nu>:

> Martijn Boekhorst wrote:
> >Quoting =?UTF-8?B?QnJhbmtvIMSMaWJlag==?= <brane@xbc.nu>:
> >>Many programs on Windows accept forward slashes today, and the MS C
> >>runtime groks them and converts accordingly. So does APR, for that
> matter.
> >So shouldn't subversion?
> No, it should not. The Subversion libraries are not a general-purpose
> portability layer, unlike the C library. The client program knows best
> when and how to convert or construct the paths so that they conform to
> the SVN lib requirements, so we're going to leave that work to the client.

Subversion is not general purpose but I think/hope the client libraries qualify
as portable - if only from an api design perspective. Currently the path part
of the api is designed with subversion development in mind, not with api users
in mind. If everyone who calls the API on a non-unix platform (MacOs/win) has
to write code so the API understands the platform it is inhabiting, then there
is an "oppertunity for improvement" with the API as, for that particular
platform, the wrong standards are imposed.

> We discussed this issue to death several times ago. Please, search the
> list archives, read those discussions first.

I'm resurrecting the topic quite consciously since from now 'till this problem
is grabbed by the horns (possibly never), most client writers will probably
raise the issue at one point or another (*envisions svn world with many
clients*).

However, since enthusiasm to take this on appears to be somewhat lacking, I'll
probably be implementing the TLS wrapper-based boundary approach (with Greg's
comments in mind) for the functions I happen to need, remaining relatively
indifferent about re-use potential.

Cheers, Martijn.

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Received on Tue Jun 25 23:59:49 2002

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