[Haskell-cafe] RE: ANN: System.FilePath 0.9

[Neil Mitchell]

> I'd just point out that I'm not aware of an operating system that GHC
> runs on that doesn't accept '/' as a path separator.  It may be that
> you could fine an OS where you could compile with jhc or run with hugs
> that doesn't use '/' (e.g. MacOS 9), but support for MacOS 9 at this
> stage I wouldn't consider a high priority.  Since noone ought to need
> the path separator, and since they can currently assume '/' without
> loss of portability, it seems like adding in an extra function to
> protect us from the introduction of an operating system some time in
> the future that doesn't allow '/' as a path separator is a bit
> much.
>
> Of course, I may be wrong.  Does windows disallow mixing of '/' and
> '\\' as path separators?

That's fine, at the file system level. However some programs that are
layered on top of that, for example the copy command in the shell,
will bork on /. Also on Windows fundamentally \ is the separator, and
/ is a "second class" separator. When showing paths to the user, it
should always be \ because thats the one thats right (TM) for the
platform.

Thanks

Neil