class
	PATH

General
	cluster: elks
	description: 
		"Objects representing a path, i.e. a way to identify a file or a directory for the
		current underlying platform. A path is made of two components:
		1 - an optional root which can either be:
		a - a drive letter followed by colon on Windows, i.e. %"C:%" or %"C:\%"
		b - %"/%" for UNIX root directory.
		c - %"\%" for Windows root directory.
		d - %"\\server\share%" or %"\\server\share\%" for Microsoft UNC path.
		2 - a sequence of zero or more names.
		
		A path is absolute if it has a root, and on windows if the root is a drive, then it should
		be followed by %"\%". Otherwise a path is relative.
		
		
		Validity
		========
		
		The current class will not check the validity of filenames. Check your file
		system for your operating system manual for the list of invalid characters.
		
		
		Windows consideration
		=====================
		
		When the root of a Windows path is a drive, be aware of the following behavior:
		1 - %"C:filename.txt%" refers to the file name %"filename.txt%" in the current directory 
		    on drive %"C:%".
		2 - %"C:sub\filename.txt%" refers to the file name %"filename.txt%" in a subdirectory %"sub%"
		    of the current directory on drive %"C:%".
		3 - %"C:\sub\filename.txt%" refers to the file name %"filename.txt%" in a subdirectory %"sub%"
		    located at the root of the drive %"C:%".
		
		Both forward and backslashes are accepted, but forward slashes are internally converted
		to backward slashes whenever they are used to construct a path.
		
		On Windows, there is a limit of 259 characters for a path. If you need to create a larger
		path, you can do so by using the following conventions which will let you have paths of
		about 32,767 characters:
		1 - Use \\?\ for non-UNC path and let the rest unchanged.
		2 - Use \\?\UNC\server\share for UNC path and let the rest unchanged.
		The above path cannot be used to specify a relative path.
		
		To know more about Windows paths, read the %"Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces%"
		document located at:
		  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365247(v=vs.85).aspx
		
		
		Unicode consideration
		=====================
		
		The PATH class treats strings as sequence of Unicode characters, i.e. an instance of 
		a READABLE_STRING_8 or descendant will be treated as if characters in the range
		128 .. 255 were Unicode code points.
		This contrasts to the FILE/DIRECTORY classes where to preserve backward compatibility, those
		characters are treated as is.
		
		
		Mixed-encoding consideration
		============================
		
		Most operating systems have conventions for paths that are incompatible with Unicode.
		On UNIX, in a sequence of names, each name is just a null-terminated byte sequence, it
		does not follow any specific encoding. Usually the locale setting enables you to see
		the filename the way you expect.
		On Windows, the sequence of names is made of null-terminated UTF-16 code unit sequence. Windows
		does not guarantee that the sequence is actually a valid UTF-16 sequence.
		
		In other words, when there is an invalid UTF-8 encoding on UNIX, or an invalid UTF-16 encoding
		on Windows, the filename is not directly representable as a Unicode string. To make it possible
		to create and store paths in a textually representable form, the query name will create
		an encoded representation that can be then later used in make_from_string to create a PATH
		equivalent to the original path. The encoding is described in UTF_CONVERTER's note clause
		and is a fourth variant of the recommended practice for replacement characters in Unicode
		(see http://www.unicode.org/review/pr-121.html).
		
		
		Immutability
		============
		
		Instances of the current class are immutable."
	create: make_from_pointer, make_from_storage, make_from_normalized_storage, make_empty, make_current, make_from_string, make_from_separate

Ancestors
	COMPARABLE*
	DEBUG_OUTPUT*
	HASHABLE*
	NATIVE_STRING_HANDLER

Queries
	absolute_path: PATH
	absolute_path_in (a_current_directory: PATH): PATH
	appended (a_extra: READABLE_STRING_GENERAL): PATH
	appended_with_extension (a_ext: READABLE_STRING_GENERAL): PATH
	canonical_path: PATH
	components: ARRAYED_LIST [PATH]
	debug_output: READABLE_STRING_32
	directory_separator: CHARACTER_8
	entry: detachable PATH
	extended (a_name: READABLE_STRING_GENERAL): PATH
	extended_path alias "+" (a_path: PATH): PATH
	extension: detachable IMMUTABLE_STRING_32
	has_extension (a_ext: READABLE_STRING_GENERAL): BOOLEAN
	has_root: BOOLEAN
	hash_code: INTEGER_32
	is_absolute: BOOLEAN
	is_case_insensitive_equal (other: PATH): BOOLEAN
	is_case_sensitive_equal (other: PATH): BOOLEAN
	is_current_symbol: BOOLEAN
	is_empty: BOOLEAN
	is_equal (other: [like Current] PATH): BOOLEAN
	is_greater alias ">" (other: [like Current] PATH): BOOLEAN
	is_greater_equal alias ">=" alias "≥" (other: [like Current] PATH): BOOLEAN
	is_hashable: BOOLEAN
	is_less alias "<" (other: [like Current] PATH): BOOLEAN
	is_less_equal alias "<=" alias "≤" (other: [like Current] PATH): BOOLEAN
	is_parent_symbol: BOOLEAN
	is_relative: BOOLEAN
	is_same_file_as (a_path: PATH): BOOLEAN
	is_simple: BOOLEAN
	max alias "∨" (other: [like Current] PATH): [like Current] PATH
	min alias "∧" (other: [like Current] PATH): [like Current] PATH
	name: IMMUTABLE_STRING_32
	native_string: NATIVE_STRING
	out: STRING_8
	parent: PATH
	root: detachable PATH
	same_as (other: detachable PATH): BOOLEAN
	three_way_comparison alias "⋚" (other: [like Current] PATH): INTEGER_32
	Unix_separator: CHARACTER_8
	utf_8_name: STRING_8
	Windows_separator: CHARACTER_8

Commands
	copy (other: [like Current] PATH)

Constraints
	little endian windows
	even count on windows
	no forward slash on windows

Generated by ISE EiffelStudio