[Python-Dev] PEP 428 - pathlib - ready for approval

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Wed, 20 Nov 2013 12:25:20 +0000
Garth Bushell <garth at garthy.com> wrote:
> 
> I'm also quite uneasy on the case insensitive comparison on Windows as the
> File system NTFS is case sensitive.
> 
> """Current Windows file systems, like NTFS, are case-sensitive; that is a
> readme.txt and a Readme.txt can exist in the same directory. Windows
> disallows the user to create a second file differing only in case due to
> compatibility issues with older software not designed for such
> operation."""  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_sensitivity)

Well the path class is named WindowsPath, not NTFSPath. In other words,
it embodies path semantics as exposed by the Windows system and API,
not what NTFS is able to do. Having per-filesystem concrete path
classes would quickly grow of control (do we need a separate class for
FAT32 filesystems? what if Windows later switches to another
filesystem?).

The PEP already points to a corresponding discussion:
http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0428/#case-sensitivity

> If people create .PY files it wouldn't work on Linux so why make it work on
> windows?

What do you mean with "work"?
What I know is that if I save a something.PY file under Windows and then
double-click on it in the Explorer, it will be launched with the Python
interpreter.

Regards

Antoine.