[Python-Dev] (Idea) subclassable string: path object? (original) (raw)

Jack Jansen jack@oratrix.nl
Fri, 03 Aug 2001 17:00:09 +0200

One problem I see is that what you'd really like is to overload + and split and such on path objects. But this creates a problem if you then pass this path object to something that expects old-fashioned strings: if it wants to manipulate that path it will use string operations, which suddenly have different semantics...

Recently, Just van Rossum <just@letterror.com> said:

Every once in a while I wished for an path object to manipulate file system paths. Things like os.path.join(a, b, c, os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(p))[0] + ".ext") quickly get frustrating (so of course I never write them like that ;-). > I thought of implementing a path object several times, but always stopped whe n I realized (for the Nth time ;-) that you'd then have to do something like file = open(p.tostring()) whenever you want to use your pat. That doesn't help at all. > But: since strings are now subclassable (there are, aren't they?) this should no longer be a problem! > Would it be a worthwile project to design and implement a path object for the standard library? > Just > _________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev

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