[Python-Dev] Path object design

[Andrew Dalke]

Steve:
> > I'm darned if I know. I simply know that it isn't right for http resources.

/F:
> the URI specification disagrees; an URI that starts with "../" is per-
> fectly legal, and the specification explicitly states how it should be
> interpreted.

I have looked at the spec, and can't figure out how its explanation
matches the observed urljoin results.  Steve's excerpt trimmed out
the strangest example.

>>> urlparse.urljoin("http://blah.com/a/b/c", "../../../")
'http://blah.com/../'
>>> urlparse.urljoin("http://blah.com/a/b/c", "../../../..")  # What?!
'http://blah.com/'
>>> urlparse.urljoin("http://blah.com/a/b/c", "../../../../")
'http://blah.com/../../'
>>>

> (it's important to realize that "urijoin" produces equivalent URI:s, not
> file names)

Both, though, are "paths".  The OP, Mik Orr, wrote:

   I agree that supporting non-filesystem directories (zip files,
   CSV/Subversion sandboxes, URLs) would be nice, but we already have a
   big enough project without that.  What constraints should a Path
   object keep in mind in order to be forward-compatible with this?

Is the answer therefore that URLs and URI behaviour should not
place constraints on a Path object becuse they are sufficiently
dissimilar from file-system paths?  Do these other non-FS hierarchical
structures have similar differences causing a semantic mismatch?

                                Andrew
                                dalke at dalkescientific.com