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dream-path
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Add the crate, normalize a path, keep it as a key, and look it up.

Add the crate# 

cargo add dream-path

It needs Rust 1.88 or newer and brings one dependency, bstr, for byte strings. The optional lua feature adds the Luau module.

Normalize a path# 

fn main() {
    let normalized = dream_path::normalize_path(br"Textures\Tx_Wood_01.DDS");
    assert_eq!(normalized, b"textures/tx_wood_01.dds");
}

Paths are bytes, not strings: normalize_path accepts anything that is AsRef<[u8]>, so a &str, a String, a Vec<u8> or bytes read straight from an archive all work, whatever their encoding.

Keep it as a key#

When a path is stored and looked up again, keep it as a NormalizedPath. It normalizes once, when it is made, and can be looked up in a map by borrowed bytes:

use std::collections::HashMap;

use dream_path::{NormalizedPath, normalize_path_into};

fn main() {
    let mut textures = HashMap::new();
    textures.insert(NormalizedPath::new(r"Textures\Tx_Wood_01.DDS"), "wood");

    // A lookup normalizes the query into a buffer the caller keeps and reuses.
    let mut scratch = Vec::new();
    normalize_path_into(&mut scratch, b"//TEXTURES/tx_wood_01.dds");
    assert_eq!(textures.get(scratch.as_slice()), Some(&"wood"));
}

The map holds normalized keys, so the query must be normalized too: a borrowed lookup compares bytes and nothing else. Keys and lookups covers the patterns.

Next#