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Re: Strange use of FrontEnd`FileName

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg71718] Re: [mg71664] Strange use of FrontEnd`FileName
• From: "Chris Chiasson" <chris at chiasson.name>
• Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 04:04:46 -0500 (EST)
• References: <200611260848.DAA14498@smc.vnet.net>

If the user works on a system where the kernel is run on a computer
with a different file system than that of the computer running the
front end, there needs to be a way to distinguish between the
different file systems. I wonder what else ToFileName can do.

I had to write an entire set of functions to handle the output of
$Input because it gives a relative path when executed inside a
package. I bet there is already a nice set of internal functions that
handles these situations. It would be great to see them
exposed/published for the users.

On 11/26/06, Philipp <Philipp.M.O at gmail.com> wrote:
> In the Wolfram documentation (Services & Resources > Mathematica >
> Kernels and Programming) there is a method "How can I automatically set
> Mathematica's working directory to the same directory containing my
> notebook?"
> (http://support.wolfram.com/mathematica/kernel/interface/notebookdir.html)
>
> The statement is,
>
> SetDirectory[ToFileName[
>  Extract["FileName" /. NotebookInformation[EvaluationNotebook[]], {1},
>    FrontEnd`FileName]]]
>
> Would somebody kindly explain to me as to why Extract wraps the
> extracted directory list in FrontEnd`FileName before ToFileName is
> applied?
>
> Nominally, it shouldn't work. The ToFileName documentation indicates
> that the directory argument can have "only" a String or List head.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Philipp.
>
>
> P.S. I realise FrontEnd`FileName has HoldAll attribute. This only leads
> to an additional question, why the directory list needs to be passed to
> ToFileName unevaluated. P.
>
>


-- 
http://chris.chiasson.name/

• References:
  • Strange use of FrontEnd`FileName
    • From: "Philipp" <Philipp.M.O@gmail.com>