Hi Ideas,
I often need to reference a script's current directory. I end up writing:
import os
SRC_DIR = os.path.dirname(__file__)
But I would prefer to have a new dunder for that. I propose: "__dir__".
I was wondering if others would find it convenient to include such a shortcut.
Here are some examples of dirname(__file__) in prominent projects.
Reasons not to add __dir__:
* There already is one way to do it and it's clear and fairly short.
* Avoid the bikeshed discussion of __dir__, __folder__, and other candidates.
Reasons to add it:
* os.path.dirname(__file__) returns the empty string when you're in the same directory as the script. Luckily, os.path.join understands an empty string as a ".", but this still is suboptimal for logging where it might be surprising to find the empty string. __dir__ could be implemented to contain a "." in that case.
* I would save about 20 characters and a line from 50% of my python scripts.
* This is such a common construct that everyone giving it their own name seems suboptimal for communicating. Common names include: here, path, dirname, module_dir.
Cheers,
Yuval Greenfield