"Peter Dimov" <pdimov@mmltd.net> wrote in message news:006301c5540d$c2bfe0b0$6401a8c0@pdimov2...
Beman Dawes wrote:
"Peter Dimov" <pdimov@mmltd.net> wrote in message news:012701c553ea$c2707610$6401a8c0@pdimov2...
It seems to me that the correct definition of exists() in terms of status() is just !(status() & not_found_flag).
The expectation with not_found_flag is that, assuming the branch() if any is found, it should be possible to create a file or directory with that path. Consider:
if (!exists("foo")) create_directory("foo"); // surprise! This may fail: "exists but not a directory"
!exists("foo") == !!(status("foo") & not_found_flag) == status("foo") & not_found_flag
if( status("foo") & not_found_flag ) { create_directory( "foo" ); }
I don't see your point, but I may be missing something.
My point is that if "foo" is a socket or some other non-directory, non-streamable-file, entity, then classifying it as "not_found_flag" is very misleading. Yet status() has to classify it as something. It isn't an error, it isn't not found, it isn't a directory, and it isn't a file (or streamable-file or whatever you call that.) None of the existing categories fit. So a new "other" category would seem indicated. --Beman