logical pathnames

[David A. Moon <Moon@STONY-BROOK.SCRC.Symbolics.COM>]

    Date: Fri, 21 Oct 88 14:13:50 pdt
    From: Eric Benson <eb@lucid.com>

    I wish someone would make a proposal
    for generic pathnames.  I don't think they ever got the consideration
    they deserved.  (I know they aren't really related to this issue,
    except insofar as users would like to have portable pathnames in their
    programs.)

I deduce you mean "logical pathnames" (pathnames for an imaginary portable
file system, which get translated by site-dependent translations into
physical pathnames on an actual file system), rather than "generic
pathnames" (pathnames that stand for a family of related files, such as a
source file and its associated compiled file(s)).  I think this has been
proposed a couple of times, only to be shot down, either because it was
thought unnecessary or because the discussants didn't understand it.  I
too would like to see it proposed and adopted, but I won't propose it
myself, as I am very tired of trying to swim up waterfalls.