# Better handling of pathnames

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/better-handling-of-pathnames/36792>\
**Category:** Community\
**Tags:** question, package, filesystem\
**Created:** [March 31, 2020, 10:16am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/better-handling-of-pathnames/36792 "2020-03-31T10:16:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 11

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**Author:** ![stevengj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stevengj/32/71_2.png) [@stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stevengj)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 10:11pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/better-handling-of-pathnames/36792/11 "2020-03-31T22:11:22Z")

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> [@affans](#):
>
> Isn’t the easier way of doing this simply support `::Path` in `CSV` or other packages that deal with it?

So, rather than implementing a couple dozen methods to implement an `AbstractString` interface in _one_ package, you think it is simpler to change _every_ package that works with files?

Out of the [3000+ Julia packages](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/over-3000-packages-congratulation-julia-community/36702), how many do you think accept a pathname? (Also, you’ll have to extend every `Base` function that accepts a pathname, of which there are quite a few.)

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