Re: encapsulating directory operations

Paul Edwards <mutazilah@gmail.com> wrote:

 
When C90 was being written - or indeed - when K&R was
being written - if there hadn't been pressure to "bring to market",
would you EXPECT a language standard - any language
standard - but in this specific instance the ISO/IEC 9899:1990
committee - to have included a standard form of directory
manipulation?

No need to speculate here: Common Lisp standard which is from
similar period as C includes directory manipulation.  In modern
times this is considered one of least useful part of the
language: to run "everywhere" this part is baroque and
promises only a little.  In practice two standard compliant
Common Lisp implementatios running on the same system can
produce different results from the same operations.  So
to use directory operations one have to be very careful to
avoid nonportable parts.

Technically Common Lisp does not have functions to create
or remove directires, it can work only with existing ones.

--
                              Waldek Hebisch