[Python-ideas] Speed up os.walk() 5x to 9x by using file attributes from FindFirst/NextFile() and readdir()

[Ben Hoyt]

> It would be very odd to have an st_mode that contains a subset of
> the information the platform can provide. In particular having st_mode
> would give the impression that it is the full mode.

Yes, it's slightly odd, but not as odd as you'd think. This is
especially true for Windows users, because we're used to st_mode only
being a subset of the information -- the permission bits are basically
meaningless on Windows.

The alternative is to introduce yet another new tuple/struct with
"type size atime ctime mtime" fields. But you still have to specify
that it's implementation dependent (Linux/BSD only provides type,
Windows provides all those fields), and then you have to have ways of
testing what type the type is. stat_result and the stat module already
give you those things, which is why I think it's best to stick with
the stat_result structure.

In terms of what's useful, certainly "type" and "size" are, so you may
as well throw in atime/ctime/mtime, which Windows also gives us for
free.

-Ben