[Python-Dev] Defining a path protocol

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Chris Barker writes:

 > which I suppose we do -- there are already other path implimentaitons out
 > there (though at least some are strings :-) )

Even so, their __fspath__ implementation might return syntactically
canonicalized or realpath paths, rather than whatever is input.  If
cached and the path frequently accessed, the realpath implementation
might be a significant win in some applications.