[Python-Dev] Portable and OS-dependent module idea/proposal/brain fart

[Skip Montanaro]

    Tim> chmod is likely the one I hear the most gripes about.  Windows
    Tim> heads are looking to change "file attributes", the name "chmod" is
    Tim> gibberish to them

Well, we could confuse everyone and rename "chmod" to "chfat" (is that like
file system liposuction?).  Windows probably has an equivalent function
whose name is 17 characters long which we'd all love to type, I'm sure. ;-)

    Tim> most of the Unix mode bits make no sense under Windows (& contra
    Tim> Guido's optimism, never will) even if you know the secret octal
    Tim> code ...

It beats a secret handshake.  Imagine all the extra peripherals we'd have to
make available for everyone's computer. ;-)

    Tim> So this is less a doc issue than that more of os needs to become
    Tim> more like os.path (i.e., intelligently named functions with
    Tim> intelligently abstracted interfaces).

Hasn't Guido's position been that the interface modules like os, posix, etc
are just a thin layer over the underlying API (Guido: note how I cleverly
attributed this position to you but also placed the responsibility for
correctness on your head!)?  If that's the case, perhaps we should provide a
slightly higher level module that abstracts the file system as objects, and
adopts a more user-friendly approach to the secret octal codes.  Those of us
worried about job security could continue to use the lower level module and
leave the higher level interface for former Visual Basic programmers.

    Tim> never-grasped-what-ken-thompson-had-against-trailing-"e"s-ly y'rs -

maybe-the-"e"-key-stuck-on-his-TTY-ly y'rs...

Skip Montanaro | http://www.mojam.com/
skip@mojam.com | http://www.musi-cal.com/~skip/
847-971-7098   | Python: Programming the way Guido indented...