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List:       mingw-users
Subject:    Re: [Mingw-users] VBScript argument names must have length > 1
From:       Keith Marshall <keithmarshall () users ! sourceforge ! net>
Date:       2014-10-22 23:56:37
Message-ID: 54484435.1040207 () users ! sourceforge ! net
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On 22/10/14 22:33, Cesar Strauss wrote:
> On 22/10/2014 17:05, Keith Marshall wrote:
> > On 22/10/14 15:15, John Brown wrote:
> 
> > > Where is this documented?
> 
> There is a helpful soul that took the source code and created the 
> following page with all the rules:
> 
> http://mingw.org/wiki/Posix_path_conversion

Thanks for that link; boy, what a heuristic (== broken by design) mess!

> > I expected /first:john to be interpreted as a path list, but
> > apparently it isn't:
> > 
> > $ showargv /first:john
> > argv[01]: /first:john
> 
> Paths in path lists should be absolute. This looks to me like a
> command line switch.

Except that it is inconsistent with the documented expectation that, in
MSYS, Microsoft style command line switches should be expressed as //,
so making this:

> Indeed, the Microsoft linker has a /DEF:filename switch.
> See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/34c30xs1.aspx

... fundamentally irrelevant.

> > $ showargv /first:/john
> > argv[01]: C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\first;C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\john
> 
> It is a proper path list, no surprises.

Sure.  Of the examples which I provided, this is the only one to deliver
expected behaviour.

> > $ showargv //first:/john
> > argv[01]: //first:/john
> 
> It begins with // followed by a /. It is treated like a UNC path, 
> //server/path.

Maybe, but once again it is inconsistent with expectation; Earnie has
always stated that, in MSYS, UNC paths should normally be expressed as
///server/path, i.e. with three initial solidi, although the wiki page
suggests that the coding fails to match his intended design.

> > $ showargv //first://john
> > argv[01]: //first://john
> 
> Same reason as above.

And again, inconsistent; the initial pair of solidi should have been
reduced to just one.  (Granted, the second pair should, perhaps then be
preserved, since they are embedded within the switch expression, for it
is as such that this argv[01] should have been interpreted).

> I was thinking that all these rules could be codified in an 
> user-modifiable external file with some regular expression syntax. This 
> would solve many complains about MSYS path translation, I think.

That could provide a solution.  Certainly, something *badly* needs to be
done, for right now, its all an horrendous mess of confusion, with
heuristic inconsistencies, and impossibilities.

-- 
Regards,
Keith.

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