Geoffrey Clemm wrote:
I didn't mean for "fake" to have a pejorative tone ... perhaps I
should have said "simulate" ... symbolic links are very useful, but
unfortunately, Windows does not provide them...

Not entirely true: Windows Vista adds symbolic links, and even prior
versions like XP have a lame imitation called junctions (see
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-symlinks-in-windows-vista/>).
Now, I realize XP will have to be supported for quite a while yet, but
IMHO it's time for IBM, and the industry as a whole, to get out of the
"can't do symlinks because Windows doesn't support them" mindset and get
into that of "let's begin work on making symlinks first-class objects in
all our tools" because within a couple of release cycles, all supported
platforms will have them.

It's not quite so simple for a Java-based tool such as RTC, since you
presumably have to wait for the Java community to decide to support
symlinks and then till you support that JVM. Fortunately, it appears
that the upcoming Java 7 will add symlink support (in the java.nio.file
package). It would make me quite happy if IBM would say "we will support
symlinks in the first RTC release which supports Java 7". (If in fact
running on Java 7 within a symlink-aware filesystem, of course). This
could be not much more than a year away.

MK

As a reminder, the best place to document your support/need for symbolic
link support would be in work item 40443.

I submitted the work item, but support from customers is what is needed
to get this kind of enhancement request into plan.

Cheers,
Geoff


Mervyn Keene wrote:
Geoffrey Clemm wrote:
I didn't mean for "fake" to have a pejorative tone ... perhaps I
should have said "simulate" ... symbolic links are very useful, but
unfortunately, Windows does not provide them...

Not entirely true: Windows Vista adds symbolic links, and even prior
versions like XP have a lame imitation called junctions (see
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-symlinks-in-windows-vista/>).
Now, I realize XP will have to be supported for quite a while yet, but
IMHO it's time for IBM, and the industry as a whole, to get out of the
"can't do symlinks because Windows doesn't support them" mindset and
get into that of "let's begin work on making symlinks first-class
objects in all our tools" because within a couple of release cycles,
all supported platforms will have them.

It's not quite so simple for a Java-based tool such as RTC, since you
presumably have to wait for the Java community to decide to support
symlinks and then till you support that JVM. Fortunately, it appears
that the upcoming Java 7 will add symlink support (in the
java.nio.file package). It would make me quite happy if IBM would say
"we will support symlinks in the first RTC release which supports Java
7". (If in fact running on Java 7 within a symlink-aware filesystem,
of course). This could be not much more than a year away.

MK