[e-lang] File API taming

[ihab.awad at gmail.com]

Thank you -- these are indeed good test cases.

On Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 5:17 PM, Bill Frantz <frantz at pwpconsult.com> wrote:
> Most modern OSes do something based on some notion of file type. Generally
> they associate a file with an application so double clicking the file opens
> the application.

So in the brave new world I propose, something with access to the
parent directory of the file, and thus able to determine what the name
of the file is, would have to make the association between file and
app. Once launched, the app would not know -- nor need to know -- what
the file is called.

I have to admit it seems mildly inconvenient -- but (a) it's only
*mildly* inconvenient; and (b) it does behave as correctly as possible
in the case of a file that is hardlinked from 2 places, one as
"file.txt" and the other as "file.doc" (say).

> File open dialogs also allow the caller to filter on the notion of type.
> This behavior could be preserved in the cases where the file open dialog
> operates in a different security context than the calling application.

Yes -- the open dialog implicitly must have access to at least the
immediate parent directory of the file it is choosing, so that would
not be a problem under my proposal.

Ihab

-- 
Ihab A.B. Awad, Palo Alto, CA