Re: Ada95 file management, (Rename, Wildcard)

[kilgallen@eisner.decus.org (Larry Kilgallen)]

In article <35E8FD6D.28EE@ddre.dk>, Hans Marqvardsen <hm@ddre.dk> writes:
> Dr Richard A. O'Keefe wrote:
>> 
>> Hans Marqvardsen wrote:
>> > 1: Is it a fact, that Ada95 has no language-defined procedure allowing
>> > you to rename files, or to search for wildcard filenames ?
>> 
>> There are no wildcard facilities in the C89, C++98, Pascal, Fortran 
> <snip>
>> Renaming and wildcards are *operating-system* features...
> 
> Guess, that creating or opening files are operating-system features as
> well.
> Fortunately, these _are_ included in the RM.

Creating files mostly requires that the filename syntax be legal --
this can be accomplished by keeping it deadly simple.  Even with
that, creating files in Ada has this ugly bit known as the Form
parameter, which is where all the non-portable stuff is hidden.
File ownership, RMS attributes, etc. are all hidden there on a
VMS system, making the resulting program quite non-portable.

Now consider wildcarding.  I bet your OS2 system would not
like a a filespec of MY_DEV:[FOO.BAR.][LATEST]FILE.D%T;-0.
But putting the whole filespec in the "hide the system-specific
part" parameter like Form sort of leaves the Ada Rename call
to being one with _no_ standard parameters and _all_ the information
carried in the non-portable parameters.

The Posix people have a method for those willing to accept
least-common-denominator Unix semantics.  A wider general
capability seems impossible.

Larry Kilgallen