I've always found this confusing, and so I'll write down the
understanding I've reached, in the hope that either it will help
others, or others can help me by correcting if these are
misunderstandings.
On Unix systems:
`nativePath`
contains the bytes corresponding to the native filename used
by native system calls.
`path`
is a UTF-16 encoding of an attempt to provide a human
readable version of the native filename. This involves
interpreting native bytes according to the character encoding
specified by the current locale of the application as
indicated by nl_langinfo(CODESET).
For different locales, the same file can have a different
`path`.
The native bytes may not be valid UTF-8, and so if the
character encoding is UTF-8, then there may not be a valid
`path` that can be encoded to produce the same `nativePath`.
It is best to use `nativePath` for working with filenames,
including conversion to URI, but use `path` when displaying
names in the UI.
On WINNT systems:
`path`
contains wide characters corresponding to the native filename
used by native wide character system APIs. For at least most
configurations, I assume wide characters are UTF-16, in which
case this is also human readable.
`nativePath`
is an attempt to represent the native filename in the native
multibyte character encoding specified by the current locale
of the application.
For different locales, I assume the same file can have a
different `nativePath`.
I assume there is not necessarily a valid multibyte character
encoding, and so there may not be a valid `nativePath` that
can be decoded to produce the same `path`.
It is best to use `path` for working with filenames.
Conversion to URI involves assuming `path` is UTF-16 and
converting to UTF-8.
The parameters mean very different things on different systems,
and so it is not generally possible to write XP code with either
of these, but Gecko attempts to do so anyway.
The numbers of applications not using UTF-8 and filenames not
valid UTF-8 are much smaller on Unix systems than the numbers of
applications not using UTF-8 and non-ASCII filenames on WINNT
systems, and so choosing to work with `path` provides more
compatibility than working with `nativePath`.
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