> This works:
> infile=open('/foo/bar/prog/py_modules/this_is_a_test','r')
>
> This doesn't:
> infile=open('~/prog/py_modules/this_is_a_test','r')
>
> Can't I work with files using Unix expressions?
You can use the glob module:
http://docs.python.org/library/glob.html#module-glob