[Python-Dev] The path module PEP

[Tony Meyer]

> Remove __div__ (Ian, Jason, Michael, Oleg)
>
> This is one of those where everyone (me too) says "I don't care either
> way." If that is so, then I see no reason to change it unless someone
> can show a scenario in which it hurts readability. Plus, a few people
> have said that they like the shortcut.
>
> * http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2005-July/292251.html
> * http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054496.html
> * http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2005-July/291628.html
> * http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2005-July/291621.html

Well, if you include the much larger discussion on python-list,  
people (including me) have said that removing __div__ is a good  
idea.  If it's included in the PEP, please at least include a  
justification and cover the problems with it.  The vast majority of  
people (at least at the time) were either +0 or -0, not +1.  +0's are  
not justification for including something.

Against it:

  * Zen: Beautiful is better than ugly. Explicit is better than  
implicit. Readability counts. There should be one-- and preferably  
only one --obvious way to do it.

  * Not every platform that Python supports has '/' as the path  
separator.  Windows, a pretty major one, has '\'.  I have no idea  
what various portable devices use, but there's a reasonable chance  
it's not '/'.

  * It's being used to mean "join", which is the exact opposite  
of /'s other meaning ("divide").

  * Python's not Perl.  We like using functions and not symbols.

> Renaming methods because of PEP 8 (Gustavo, Ian, Jason)
>
> I'm personally not keen on that. I like most of the names as they
> are. abspath(), joinpath(), realpath() and splitall() looks so much
> better than abs_path(), join_path(), real_path() and split_all() in my
> eyes. If someone like the underscores I'll add it to Open Issues.

+1 to following PEP 8.  These aren't built-ins, it's a library  
module.  In addition to the PEP, underscores make it much easier to  
read, especially for those for whom English is not their first language.

=Tony.Meyer