Subject: Re: merge-pathnames
From: Erik Naggum <clerik@naggum.no>
Date: 1998/04/20
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3102077532429730@naggum.no>


* Andy Brezing
| Some question to a the CL implementation on a UNIX platform of
| 'merge-pathnames'. I would like to change the pathname-type of a pathname
| by using 'merge-pathnames'.

  well, if you insist on MERGE-PATHNAMES:

(merge-pathnames (make-pathname :type "kll") <default>)

  but I would recommend

(make-pathname :type "kll" :defaults <default>)
  
| Which version of 'merge-pathnames' might be wrong?

  both may be correct.  please note that just trying a Lisp implementation
  without knowing what to expect is not a very good way to understand what
  the language does.  in particular, CLISP implements only what the authors
  agree to, without any form of commitment to conformance.

  note that MERGE-PATHNAMES is not specified to take strings as arguments,
  but "pathname designators".  strings are processed by PARSE-NAMESTRING to
  become pathnames.  this means that you will find out what you get by
  evaluating

(describe (parse-namestring ".kll"))

  in the available Common Lisp environments.  (ordinarily, it would be
  enough to do (describe #P".kll"), but CLISP doesn't seem to think #P is
  worth implementing, either, at least not in the latest version I could
  get to build here.)

#:Erik
-- 
  Abort, Retry, or Upgrade?