path module / class

[Peter Hansen]

Neil Hodgson wrote:
> Chris:
> 
>> What is the status of the path module/class PEP?  Did somebody start
>> writing one, or did it die?  I would really like to see something like
>> Jason Orendorff's path class make its way into the python standard
>> library.
> 
>    There is no PEP yet but there is a wiki page.
> http://wiki.python.org/moin/PathClass
>    Guido was unenthusiastic so a good step would be to produce some 
> compelling examples.

Compelling to whom?  I wonder if it's even possible for Guido to find 
compelling anything which obsoletes much of os.path and shutil and 
friends (modules which Guido probably added first and has used the most 
and feels most comfortable with).

Personally, I find almost all uses of path.py to be compelling, most 
especially when I consider it from the points of view of "readability", 
"explicitness", "beauty", "simple", "flat", let alone "practical" 
(having all those tools in one place).  Those were all from Tim 
channeling Guido, but perhaps it was a noisy channel...  And Guido's 
views on consistency are well documented ;-) so the fact that the 
alternative to path.py is incredibly inconsistent probably has no weight 
in the argument.

Not so facetiously though: if the examples given haven't proven 
compelling, is it realistic to think that someone will dig up an example 
which suddenly changes Guido's mind?  I suspect it's more realistic to 
think, as with the ternary operator, that he either will or won't, and 
examples proposed from outside won't have much if any impact on his 
thinking.

-Peter