[Python-ideas] New PEP proposal -- Pathlib Module Should Contain All File Operations

[Chris Barker]

On Sun, Mar 18, 2018 at 10:53 PM, Greg Ewing <greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz>
wrote:

>
> The functions in os are thin wrappers around system calls,
>

exactly -- and this is a very old legacy from way back. Modern Python users
should not have to concern themselves with whether something they want to
do is essentially a system call or a higher-level process.

Typical users, and certainly newbies, think "I want to do this or that with
the filesystem", and it would be really nice if there was one way, and one
place to do that.

The old os vs shutil was annoying enough, then we got pathlib with very
little support in the stlib, which was really annoying. Now we finally have
pathlib support in most of the stdlib, so I can really tell people that
they can use Paths, rather than strings for paths -- great!

But yes, the job is not yet finished, because we still have to go find
_some_ functionality in os or shutil

Yes, it seems like duplication, but that decision was made when pathlib as
added.

I do think we should not simply move everything, but rather work out each
case -- and I like Nathanial's idea of simplifying / cleaning up the API a
bit while we are at it. (please don't have an "unlink"!).

-CHB

PS: does shutil really still not work with Path objects? aarrgg!

PPS: someone made a comment about "having to update every book about
python" -- so I"ll repeat: that decision was made when pathlib was added.


-- 

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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