pathlib

[Barry Scott]

> On 30 Sep 2019, at 14:20, Dan Sommers <2QdxY4RzWzUUiLuE at potatochowder.com> wrote:
> 
> That's the wording I read.  I inferred that "path-handling operations
> which don't actually access a filesystem" meant an object that didn't
> necessarily represent an actual file, and that "provide methods to do
> system calls on path objects" did indicate an actual file.  From the
> existence of Path.read_bytes, I inferred that at least some Path objects
> represent (and operate on) actual existing files.  I've been doing this
> for a long time, and I may have read my expecations into those words.

pathlib.Path() adds the semantics of operating system file rules to strings.

The addition of open(), read_bytes() etc is a convenience to the programmer.
Some people consider this a mistake other a great feature.

You can write this:

	pathlib.Path("name").open()

Which is the same as:

	open(pathlib.Path("name"))

Which is the same as:

	open("name")

You would not expect str to track the file, why expect Path() to?

Barry