Python 3000: Standard API for archives?

[Tim Golden]

Chuck Rhode wrote:
> samwyse wrote this on Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:02:03 +0000.  My reply is
> below.
> 
>> I think it would be a good thing if a standardized interface
>> existed, similar to PEP 247.  This would make it easier for one
>> script to access multiple types of archives, such as RAR, 7-Zip,
>> ISO, etc.
> 
> Gee, it would be great to be able to open an archive member for update
> I/O.  This is kind of hard to do now.  If it were possible, though, it
> would obscure the difference between file directories and archives,
> which would be kind of neat.  Furthermore, you could navigate archives
> of archives (zips of tars and other abominations).

FWIW, there's no need to get hung on Python-3000 or
any other release. Just put something together a module
called "archive" or whatever, which exposes the kind of
API you're thinking of, offering support across zip, bz2
and whatever else you want. Put it up on the Cheeseshop,
announce it on c.l.py.ann and anywhere else which seems
apt. See if it gains traction. Take it from there.

NB This has the advantage that you can start small, say
with zip and bz2 support and maybe see if you get
contributions for less common formats, even via 3rd
party libs. If you were to try to get it into the stdlib
it would need to be much more fully specified up front,
I suspect.

TJG