abstract paths

[Mark Thornton]

Alan Snyder wrote:
> It is not obvious to me that abstract pathnames are meaningful only 
> for relative path names. No argument has been made to justify this claim.
The syntax for the root of a path is file system specific, so any 
abstractness is blown whenever the root is included. So an absolute path 
can only really be applied to a system with a compatible file system, in 
which case why not just use the regular path?

>
> 2. Copying a file from one file system to another could use the same 
> absolute path for both the source and the destination. A current 
> example of copying between two file systems (providers) would be 
> mirroring files onto an FTP host.
Usually you send the path relative to some place on the source system 
and resolve it relative to a different path on the destination system. 
If you are mirroring between identical systems then you don't need an 
AbstractPath as a regular Path will work.

Mark Thornton