[Python-Dev] Adding the 'path' module (was Re: Some RFE for review) (original) (raw)

Thomas Heller theller at python.net
Fri Jul 1 08:45:14 CEST 2005

Guido van Rossum:

Whoa! Do we really need a completely different mechanism for doing the same stuff we can already do?

Neil Hodgson <nyamatongwe at gmail.com> writes:

One benefit I see for the path module is that it makes it easier to write code that behaves correctly with unicode paths on Windows. Currently, to implement code that may see unicode paths, you must first understand that unicode paths may be an issue, then write conditional code that uses either a string or unicode string to hold paths whenever a new path is created.

Indeed. This would probably handle the cases where you have to manipulate file paths in code.

OTOH, Python is lacking a lot when you have to handle unicode strings on sys.path, in command line arguments, environment variables and maybe other places. See, for example http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-December/256969.html

I had started to work on the sys.path unicode issues, but it seems a considerable rewrite of (not only) Python/import.c is required. But I fear the patch http://python.org/sf/1093253 is slowly getting out of date.

Thomas

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