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Feature #6507

closed

File Literal

Added by trans (Thomas Sawyer) almost 12 years ago. Updated over 6 years ago.

Status:
Feedback
Assignee:
-
Target version:
-
[ruby-core:45282]

Description

=begin
One of the features of the Rebol programming language that I has always liked is its direct support for files via the (({%filename})) notation (See http://www.rebol.com/r3/docs/datatypes/file.html). I've often wondered how Ruby might support the same, but finding a suitable and available notation proved rather difficult.

Today it occurred to me that perhaps the / symbol could do the trick:

file = /README.rdoc

For absolute paths it could be //:

file = //etc/fstab

Exactly what class of object (({file})) should be is up for debate. Probably it would be a (({Pathname})) instance, but I suppose it could a different "Path" class basically a wrapper round (({File})) and (({Dir})) classes.

The benefit of this is fairly obvious I think, but I'll give one clear usecase just the same:

class Foo
def initialize(source)
case source
when String
parse(source)
when Pathname # assuming this to be the instance
parse(source.read)
end
end
end

from string

Foo.new "content of foo"

from file

Foo.new /foo.txt

There is the ambiguity of x /a for division, but I think expecting x/a or x / a for that is okay. After all, the same limitation holds for other unary operators too.

Actually, while I like the concise notation, it may be more flexible to require a string:

/'foo.txt'

Then / could actually be a unary operator.

In anycase, whether this notation works or not, I hope this spurs some debate so that ultimately something along these lines will come of it. I truly tire of typing things like (({File.read(File.join(File.dirname(FILE), fname))})).
=end

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