Issue: PATHNAME-SUBDIRECTORY-LIST (Version 2)

[gz@spt.entity.com (Gail Zacharias)]

   Date: Tue, 5 Jul 88 14:56 EDT
   From: Kent M Pitman <KMP@STONY-BROOK.SCRC.Symbolics.COM>

     (PATHNAME-DIRECTORY (PARSE-NAMESTRING ">foo>*>bar>baz.lisp")) ;on LispM
     => (:ABSOLUTE "FOO" :WILD "BAR")

I think this is pointless.  Why should there be special syntax for "*" but
not for "x*z"?  It only gives you the ability to detect a small subset of
possible wildcard specs, and it only gives you the ability to construct
a small subset of wildcard specs (and there's nothing equivalent for even
this small subset within file names or types or devices).  It's a hack, which
might get in the way of a more general solution.  Why not just leave everything
as strings for now, and leave other data types for any possible less ad hoc
approaches to the wildcard issues.