[Python-Dev] / as path join operator

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

>>>>> "Jason" == Jason Orendorff <jason.orendorff at gmail.com> writes:

    Jason> You seem to think that because I said "operating systems",
    Jason> I'm talking about kernel algorithms and such.

I can see how you'd get that impression, but it's not true.  My reason
for mentioning OS-level filesystem was to show that even in that
limited domain, treating paths as strings leads to bugs.

    Jason> I think paths are used more for communication, less for
    Jason> computation.

True.  For that purpose it is absolutely essential to have a string
represention.  However, I was discussing the use of "/" to invoke path
composition, which is a computation.  Nobody will use that for
communication (except to describe a path expression in graph theoretic
terms), and I don't think it's a good idea to use that particular
symbol for that operation.


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