[rfc] (K)Urls and network paths on Windows

[Jaroslaw Staniek]

Hello,
I've commited stuff (the last one is r826929) for handling Windows network 
paths like \\host\path\to\file in KUrl ctors, in the same way as absolute 
paths with drive letters. The KUrl objects created this way have file 
protocol, and network paths selected in, say, native file dialogs, work ok 
now. KUrl values of these dialogs can be used with KIO in apps without any 
changes now, because file KIO slave is used.

This reminds me another set of small decissions we have to make.
Anything like open()/fopen() works with network paths on Windows, because of 
deep integration of the proprietary local network infrastructure in the native 
API.

1. So perhaps we could have KUrl::isLocalFile("\\\\foo\\bar") == true?
Such extended meaning of "local file" would have a number of implications, 
e.g. KUrl::equals() would work better, since "local" files are case 
insensitive. It's what we expect.

2. Patrick has mentioned that we could also map smb:// to 
file://-with-network-paths. Example benefit of such mapping is that on Windows 
we could share any configuration file coming from UNIX, where smb:// is used.
Good for mixed environment in offices.

3. Mapping for the opposite direction (\\ -> smb://) is already here IIRC (?)
The only thing special for Windows in this case would be that our GUIs could 
display \\foo\bar paths instead smb://
(of course by default, this can be altered by setting the forthcoming 
"Geek/Unix mode" :).

Any comments?

-- 
regards / pozdrawiam, Jaroslaw Staniek
  Sponsored by OpenOffice Polska (http://www.openoffice.com.pl/en) to work on
  Kexi & KOffice (http://www.kexi.pl/en, http://www.koffice.org/kexi)
  KDE Libraries for MS Windows (http://windows.kde.org)