[Python-Dev] Path object design (original) (raw)

Jean-Paul Calderone exarkun at divmod.com
Wed Nov 1 15:09:48 CET 2006

On Wed, 01 Nov 2006 11:06:14 +0100, Georg Brandl <g.brandl at gmx.net> wrote:

glyph at divmod.com wrote:

On 03:14 am, sluggoster at gmail.com wrote:

>One thing is sure -- we urgently need something better than os.path. >It functions well but it makes hard-to-read and unpythonic code. I'm not so sure. The need is not any more "urgent" today than it was 5 years ago, when os.path was equally "unpythonic" and unreadable. The problem is real but there is absolutely no reason to hurry to a premature solution. I've already recommended Twisted's twisted.python.filepath module as a possible basis for the implementation of this feature. I'm sorry I don't have the time to pursue that. I'm also sad that nobody else seems to have noticed. Twisted's implemenation has an advantage that it doesn't seem that these new proposals do, an advantage I would really like to see in whatever gets seriously considered for adoption: Looking at <http://twistedmatrix.com/documents/current/api/twisted.python.filepath.FilePath.html>, it seems as if FilePath was made to serve a different purpose than what we're trying to discuss here: """ I am a path on the filesystem that only permits 'downwards' access. Instantiate me with a pathname (for example, FilePath('/home/myuser/publichtml')) and I will attempt to only provide access to files which reside inside that path. [...] The correct way to use me is to instantiate me, and then do ALL filesystem access through me. """ What a successor to os.path needs is not security, it's a better (more pythonic, if you like) interface to the old functionality.

No. You've misunderstood the code you looked at. FilePath serves exactly the purpose being discussed here. Take a closer look.

Jean-Paul

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