At 10:33 PM 6/6/2001 -0700, Ben Wing wrote:
>Paul Kinnucan wrote:
> >
> > At 08:37 AM 6/6/2001 -0600, Brad Porter wrote:
> > >Hello. I am finding that I have to modify 'jde-compile.el' in order to
> > >get the JDK " -d " option to work correctly under cygwin.
> >
> > I set directory-path-sep to ?/ in my .emacs file for the rare times I use
> > XEmacs (for testing JDE compatibility).This eliminates the need for
> > quoting. Note that the default separator under NT/Emacs is forward slash.
>
>is this change required for jde to work in xemacs?
Presently yes, but not in the next release.
>i certainly hope not.
Why? I systematically use forward slashes as the path separator on
Windows and I have never experienced the slightest problem in doing so. On
the other hand, I regularly get email from new users who think they have to
use backslashes in paths on Windows and who are unaware that back slash is
the Emacs string escape character. This result is that they innocently put
things like
(setq jde-compile-option-directory "c:\foo\bar")
in their .emacs file and are puzzled by the result ("c:foobar").
I applaud your determination to make XEmacs a native Windows application.
However, I think in this case you are mistaken on two counts. First,
forward slash is a legitimate Windows path separator so making it the
default sep character in no way violates your goal. On the other hand,.
making back slash the default sep character conflicts with the established
Emacs meaning of backslash, which is escape the next character. This
creates endless headaches for new users and for people who have to support
them.
- Paul
