Re: `file-attribute' accessors

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Mon, 09 Apr 2012 16:40:51 +0200 Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <address@hidden> 
wrote: 

LMI> Thierry Volpiatto <address@hidden> writes:
>> Why not keys instead of many accessor functions?

LMI> Because `file-attributes' already has an optional parameter, and one
LMI> sometimes wants to have, say, both the uid and the size, and statting
LMI> the file twice to get that isn't optimal.

I would extend `file-attributes' to take &rest symbols after the extra
format argument, so you could say

(file-attributes FILE nil 'size 'mtime)

And you'd get back a two-element list.  I think that's the most concise
approach: it doesn't create a bunch of new functions, scales from one
attribute to N or "just give me all", and is backwards compatible.

Ted