Re: [h-e-w] expand-file-name leaves forward slashes

[Stephen Leake]

Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> writes:

>> > Btw, I don't really understand what's wrong with c:/foo/bar style of
>> > file names that ada-mode needs to mirror the slashes.  Can you
>> > explain?  I'm afraid you will hit lots of problems if you use
>> > backslash-style absolute file names in Emacs.  (That is the reason why
>> > Emacs sets directory-sep-char to `/' in the first place.)
>> 
>> It is because we are executing DOS commands.
>
> That is not necessarily a problem; see below.
>
>> When running on "plain windows" (no Cygwin), we are using a DOS shell.
>> 'cd' requires DOS filenames (back slashes); it cannot handle forward
>> slashes.
>
> Is `cd' the only problem?  

So far, yes.

> Most commands internal to the Windows shell will happily accept
> forward slashes if you enclose the file name in quotes; `cd' is one
> of the few exceptions. For example try this in the Windows shell:
>
>       dir "C:/Program Files"
>
> You will see that it works.

Ok, I didn't know that. I normally use Cygwin bash :).

>> So I would only call convert-standard-filename to create the 'cd'
>> command.
>
> If `cd' is the only problem, you could instead change the value of
> default-directory of the buffer where you invoke the build command.
> That is what "M-x compile" does.

Interesting idea. But it won't work in this case; we are invoking
build from a source file buffer.

> Btw, are you sing "M-x compile" to run the "build" command?  

No, C-c C-c

> If not, why not?

Shorter keystroke.

But perhaps you mean "are you using the function 'compile'"; that we
are, but with a wrapper to set up the parameters.

So perhaps the explicit 'cd' is not necessary, if 'compile' takes care
of it, in the *compilation* buffer. I'll check ...

Yes, I'm getting _two_ cd commands. Apparently one from the wrapper,
and one from compile.

Hmm. On further investigation, the first "command" is not sent to the
shell; compile-internal does:

        (setq default-directory thisdir)
        (insert "cd " thisdir "\n" command "\n")

So I don't need the explicit 'cd' command.

Thanks for the tip.

-- 
-- Stephe