[path-PEP] Path inherits from basestring again

[Delaney, Timothy (Tim)]

I have to say, the examples of using / don't really suggest path
concatenation to me.

However, I think the problem is the use of whitespace. Specifically::

    path = Path()
    subdir = "subdir"
    f = "filname"

    path = path / subdir / f

looks more like division (even with the obvious names I've used). OTOH:

    path = path/subdir/f

*does* look a lot more like path concatenation. So for some people it
may be how it is used.

On the gripping hand, the second example reads more like a regex to me
... ;)


OK - now for the silly suggestions ... I'm feeling tired ... methinks
Guido would not be happy if I suggested the following on python-dev ;)

For a relative path:

    path = ./subdir/f
    path = ../subdir/f

For an absolute path:

    path = /dir/f

Both of these are currently syntax errors. Introduce the . and .. syntax
which map to calls to Path() and Path(os.path.dirname(os.cwd())
respectively,  and the unary division operator (which can either preceed
or follow the object). Hey - paths are special enough to warrant
additional syntax, aren't they?

Tim Delaney