Talk:Extract file extension: Difference between revisions
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:: That's why the specification says "For the purposes of this task", and the task allows showing a built-in standard library function that behaves differently. --[[User:Smls|Smls]] ([[User talk:Smls|talk]]) 16:32, 21 December 2017 (UTC) |
:: That's why the specification says "For the purposes of this task", and the task allows showing a built-in standard library function that behaves differently. --[[User:Smls|Smls]] ([[User talk:Smls|talk]]) 16:32, 21 December 2017 (UTC) |
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== Use Libraries not Footguns == |
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Practicing programmers should strongly prefer to use existing filesystem APIs to extract file extensions. |
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Why? |
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1. Doing this correctly depends on the operating system (OS). |
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2. Such OS APIs exist for a reason! Use them! |
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3. Generally speaking, handling strings correctly is harder than many programmers realize. There are many gotchas in doing this correctly. |
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4. You need to be smart about encodings and locales. |
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Therefore, for the sake of being *responsible* about what information Rosetta Code provides, it should do the following: |
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A. Make it abundantly clear that ad-hoc solutions are *not* applicable for real-world usage. |
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B. Point readers to the relevant APIs in their languages, operating systems, and libraries. |
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