[Python-Dev] Defining a path protocol (was: When should pathlib stop being provisional?)

[Chris Barker]

On Fri, Apr 8, 2016 at 2:50 AM, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 7 April 2016 at 03:26, Brett Cannon <brett at python.org> wrote:
>


> > Method or attribute? (changes what kind of one-liner you might use in
> > libraries, but I think historically all protocols have been methods and
> the
> > serialized string representation might be costly to build)
>

couldn't it be a property?


> Method, as long as there's a helper function somewhere


what has the helper function got to do with whether it's a method or
attribute (would we call a property an attribute here?)

> Built-in? (name is dependent on #1 if we add one)
>
> os.fspath (alongside os.fsencode and os.fsdecode)
>
> (Putting this in a module low in the dependency stack makes it easy
> for other modules to access without pulling in all of pathlib's
> dependencies)


Iike that -- though still =0.5 on having one at all -- this is only going
to be used by the stdlib and other path-using libraries, not user code --
is that that hard to call obj.__fspath__() ?

> Add the method/attribute to str? (I assume so, much like __index__() is on
> > int, but I have not seen it explicitly stated so I would rather clarify
> it)
>

I thought the whole point off all this is that not any old string can be a
path! (whereas any int can be an index). Unless we go with Chris A's
suggestion that this be a more generic lossless string protocol, rather
than just for paths.


> It's worth summarising in a PEP at least for communications purposes -
> very easy for folks that don't follow python-dev to miss otherwise.
>

I'd say add it to the existing pathlib PEP -- along with the extra
discussion of why Path does not inherit from str.

-CHB



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Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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