[Python-Dev] PEP 246, redux (original) (raw)

Phillip J. Eby pje at telecommunity.com
Thu Jan 13 00:06:34 CET 2005

At 03:19 PM 1/12/05 -0700, Steven Bethard wrote:

On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 16:07:37 -0600, Ian Bicking <ianb at colorstudy.com> wrote: > One case occurred to me with the discussion of strings and files, i.e., > adapting from a string to a file. Let's say an IReadableFile, since > files are too ambiguous. > > Consider the case where we are using a path object, like Jason > Orendorff's or py.path. It seems quite reasonable and unambiguous that > a string could be adapted to such a path object. It also seems quite > reasonable and unambiguous that a path object could be adapted to a > IReadableFile by opening the file at the given path.

This strikes me as a strange use of adaptation -- I don't see how a string can act-as-a path object, or how a path object can act-as-a file.

I see the former, but not the latter. A string certainly can act-as-a path object; there are numerous stdlib functions that take a string and then use it "as a" path object. In principle, a future version of Python might take path objects for these operations, and automatically adapt strings to them.

But a path can't act as a file; that indeed makes no sense.

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