Resolving empty paths.

[Brendon McLean]

Hi,

I apologise if this has already been discussed, but I could not find a way to search the mailing list, or properly use Google to check for that.

I am already using the Paths API in production code (www.mindsilver.com) as I was reluctant to create my own Jetbrains-like VirtualFile type abstraction when a JDK substitute lies around the corner.  I pulled the whole API out and have been using about 50% of it very successfully on Mac, Unix and Linux.  I plan to revert to your API when JDK7 is released.

One issue I run into a lot though, is exceptions caused by an "Empty path".  Mostly, this happens when resolving the empty string against an absolute path.  I see that subsequent to my branching, there is a null guard which will doubtless save many people, but lots of GUIs, whether web or Swing, will use the empty string instead of a null.  Would there be any adverse effects of adding a check for the empty string and simply returning "this" from the resolve method in such a case?

i.e.  Surely Paths.get("/usr/local").resolve("") should return Paths.get("/usr/local")?

Regards,
Brendon McLean.

Mindsilver Ltd.