[Python-Dev] Defining a path protocol

[Ethan Furman]

On 04/08/2016 09:04 AM, Chris Barker wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 8, 2016 at 2:50 AM, Nick Coghlan wrote:

>> 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)
>
> [...] 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__() ?

1) user code may call it
2) folks who write libraries are still users ;)
3) using __dunder__s directly is usually poor form.

> 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.

That does seem to be a valid point against str.__fspath__.

--
~Ethan~