[Python-ideas] Better stdlib support for Path objects

[Barry Warsaw]

On Oct 06, 2014, at 11:19 PM, Georg Brandl wrote:

>This is like the situation with context managers.  We've taken about 3-4
>minor releases to add "with" support to objects that can logically support
>it.  Nobody remembers this, so people have to refer to the docs (or the code)
>to see if and when e.g. smtplib.SMTP gained "with" support.
>
>However, the context managers are a few dozen classes at most.  With paths,
>there are hundreds of APIs that would have to be updated to take Paths
>in the stdlib alone.  Granted, a good portion would probably work fine since
>they only pass through paths to lower level APIs, but still every one has to
>be checked.  Going by precedent, that's not something that we would be able
>to do consistently, even throughout several releases.  (Another precedent is
>Argument Clinic.)

I appreciate that this is a problem with such transitions.  Is it an argument
for never doing so though?  Is it better that the stdlib prohibit adoption of
advanced features and libraries than to do so piecemeal?  I'm not so sure;
even though it's admittedly annoying when such support is missing, it's really
nice when they're there.

How useful is pathlib if it can't be used with the stdlib?

Cheers,
-Barry
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