[Python-ideas] Better stdlib support for Path objects

[Chris Angelico]

On Wed, Oct 8, 2014 at 2:39 AM, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
> On Wed, 8 Oct 2014 00:49:12 +1000
> Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Combining this thought with Chris Angelico's reply, I actually wonder
>> if the index vs int analogy is even more applicable than I first
>> thought.
>>
>> What if the protocol was __text__ with a new text() builtin (or at
>> least an operator.text() function), and it was advised to only be
>> implemented by types where they were, at least conceptually, truly
>> representable as strings?
>
> What does "truly representable, at least conceptually" mean?
> Do HTML trees apply? Configuration files? Command-line arguments?
>

I like the comparison with __index__. It's up to the class to decide
whether it wants to be "truly representable as a string". Command-line
arguments probably would be, in some canonical form. Config files
probably not, as they need their structure, but if you want your
config object to act exactly like a text string, then you define
__text__.

ChrisA