[Python-ideas] Better stdlib support for Path objects

[Donald Stufft]

> On Oct 6, 2014, at 9:38 PM, Barry Warsaw <barry at python.org> wrote:
> 
> 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?

What about C functions? Will they be reasonable to convert them to accept Path instances too?

---
Donald Stufft
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