Subject: Re: Deleting directories in lisp
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net>
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2002 22:18:01 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3233773080842596@naggum.net>

* Paul D. Lathrop
| I am writing some file-manipulation functions that I would find useful and I
| have run into a problem I cannot seem to find a method of using lisp to
| delete directories.

  I think you should not do that.  I think it is a serious error for any user
  program to assume the role of administrator, even over files it has created.
  I am constantly annoyed by user programs that assume that I want to overwrite
  files.  That is none of their business.  If a file exists with the name they
  also want to use, it may still be important to me, and I would really like
  the user program not to delete its contents so I have to drag it back from a
  backup disk.  With real file versions, this would never be a problem, but
  since Unix and Windows do not suppport file versions, the accidental loss of
  information they so strongly favor and cause is a major pain.  So I think
  that if you want system administration tools, you should not look for help in
  the language, but in the system administration subsystem, and you should make
  a strong distinction between user program and administrators.  Not so strong,
  of course, that you would need to do a serious change of identity, but strong
  enough that you do not accidentally lose or destroy information.
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