Item Subject: cc:Mail Text
I was just bitten by this, and I wonder how other List members feel about
this functionality.

I want to code a command file such that a particular file name is
hard-coded exactly once, but I need both MPE and HFS representations.
So, I tried

        setvar filename_mpe    "MYFILE.GROUP"
        setvar filename_posix  finfo( filename_mpe, "posixfullfname" )

The only trouble is, "posixfullfname" works *ONLY* if the file exists!
In my case, wouldn't you know, it didn't.

I can see the argument that "exists" should be the only option that works
whether or not the file is present.

But why does "posixfullfname" have to be a parm to finfo() in the first
place?  After all, you *never* need an existing file to be able to derive
the full POSIX filename!

As it stands now, I'll have to:

        1. check to see if the MPE file exists;
           set a flag accordingly

        2. if the file does not exist, create one

        3. get the full POSIX filename of said file

        4. if the file did not exist, purge it

So the questions are these:

   Should a function be created that converts both MPE and relative-dir
   POSIX filenames to full POSIX filenames?

   Should "posixfullfname" be enhanced so that it returns this value?

--Glenn Cole
  Software al dente, Inc.
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