abstract paths

[Mark Thornton]

Alan Snyder wrote:
> The kind of abstractness I am referring to is lack of binding to a 
> provider.
>
> Consider two file systems of the same kind (e.g. Windows) accessed 
> through different providers (native file system and FTP). The same 
> fully qualified absolute path can be used in both cases, but the 
> providers are different, so a regular Path will not work.
>
How common is it for an FTP server to allow the use of absolute paths 
(which map 1-1 to the system path)? In any case, if the file systems are 
compatible the String form of the  Path could be used as an unbound 
path. There is very little you can actually do with an unbound path --- 
many operations require the file system to be meaningful.

Mark Thornton