[Python-Dev] Pathlib enhancements - acceptable inputs and outputs for __fspath__ and os.fspath()

[Ethan Furman]

On 04/13/2016 02:37 PM, Victor Stinner wrote:

> I'm not a big fan of a flag parameter to change the return type of a
> function. Usually, two functions are preferred. In the os module we have
> getcwd/getcwdb for example. I don't know if it's a good example

I think of os.fspath() as more of a filter/reduce operation:

- str -> str
- str DirEntry -> str

- bytes -> bytes
- bytes DirEntry -> bytes

The purpose of os.fspath() (at least the one I'm arguing for ;) is to 
distil its inputs to the lowest common denominator, and no lower -- 
which is either str for string-based path objects, or bytes for 
bytes-based path objects.

--
~Ethan~