Inconsistencies between zipfile and tarfile APIs

[rantingrick]

On Jul 22, 12:05 am, Corey Richardson <kb1... at aim.com> wrote:

> > >>> from archive import ZipFile, TarFile
> > >>> zf = ZipFile(path, *args)
> > >>> tf = TarFile(path, *args)
>
> I have nothing to do this weekend, I might as well either write my own or
> twist around the existing implementations in the hg repo.

My hat is off to you Mr. Richardson. I've even considered creating my
own clean versions of these two modules, because heck, it is not that
difficult to do! However we must stop fixing these warts on a local
level Corey. We MUST clean up this damn python stdlib once and for
all.

I am willing and you are willing; that's two people. However, can we
convince the powers that be to upgrade these modules? Sure, if we get
enough people shouting for it to happen they will notice. So come on
people make your voices heard. Chime in and let the devs know we are
ready to unite and tackle these problems in our stdlib.

What this community needs (first and foremost) is some positive
attitudes. If you don't want to write the code fine. But at least
chime in and say... "Hey guys, that's a good idea! I would like to see
some of these APIs cleaned up too. good luck! +1"

Now, even if we get one hundred people chanting... "Yes, Yes, Fix This
Mess!"... i know Guido and company are going to frown because of
backwards incompatibility. But let me tell you something people, the
longer we put off these changes the more painful they are going to
be.

Python 3000 would have been the perfect time to introduce a more
intuitive and unified zip/tar archive module however that did not
happen. So now we need to think about adding a duplicate module
"archive.py" and deprecating zipfile.py and tarfile.py. We can remove
the old modules when Python 4000 rolls out.

That's just step one people, we have a long way to go!