On Wed, Nov 25, 2020 at 10:59 AM Chris Angelico <ros...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 26, 2020 at 4:36 AM Bob van der Poel <b...@mellowood.ca> wrote: > > > > I've got a program which accepts an optional env variable listing a > single > > or multiple directory for the app to use. I've done a bit of a search and > > see both a comma and semicolon being used/suggested as a path separator. > > Any consensus on which is better? > > > > MYPATHS=foo,bar,woof > > or > > MYPATHS=foo;bar;woof > > And, certainly not > > MYPATHS=foo,bar;woof > > > > I did think I could be clever and check to see if the string contained a > , > > or ; and spit it accordingly, but then what if the reason (hopefully, > > pretty damned unlikely!) that a , or ; is being used as part of a path > name? > > > > Both are very much possible. I would recommend following a well-known > standard; fortunately, there are plenty to choose from. > > 1) Separate them with spaces, because words. > 2) Separate them with commas, because lists in English. > 3) Separate with colons the way $PATH is. > > Whichever way you do it, you'll have to cope with the possibility that > the character exists in a path name. That means you'll either need an > escaping system (eg "\ " meaning a space, or ",," meaning a comma) or > a quoting system (so "foo,bar",woof would mean two entries, the first > of which contains a comma). Or you just acknowledge that MYPATHS is > unable to represent something with the delimiter - which is how $PATH > works - and then you'll probably need some workaround for that, like > maybe a command line argument. > > The one thing I really would *not* recommend is a DWIM arrangement of > having it guess at which delimiter to use. :) > Thanks Chris. What does DWIN mean? Hmmm, using colons? Yet another option :) Spaces ... nope. That means the entire option will need to be quoted to escape the shell's work. So, back to commas or semicolons. I think I'll just stick with the commas 'cause I already wrote it that way :) -- **** Listen to my FREE CD at http://www.mellowood.ca/music/cedars **** Bob van der Poel ** Wynndel, British Columbia, CANADA ** EMAIL: b...@mellowood.ca WWW: http://www.mellowood.ca -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
