Conr MacNeill wrote: > > This little area of ant causes many problems :-) I would like > to explore the > issues a little further. > > > > > Apache and Tomcat recognize and handle c:/path/path/file > > correctly. So does > > Perl, most editors, most zip tools, all the java.io.* > classes and all the > > GNU utilities. Principle of least astonishment. > Converting c:/path to > > c;\path is a bug. Code should be robust enough to handle it. > > Fair point. However I would find the fact that all single > letter paths are > impossible under Unix somewhat astonishing ! The fact that > they disappear > quietly would be more so.
What about handling it like most of the other tools: They behave different on different platforms. On *nix, they interpret c:/sample as "look in relative path c, then in absolute path /sample", on Win*, they interpret it as "look in absolute path c:\sample". That behaviour would be convenient for both *nix and Win* users. As You already pointed out, there is no way to have absolute paths which work unchanged on every platform. So the different behaviour on different platforms wouldn't hurt anyone. Wolf
