# Designing a Paths Julep

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/designing-a-paths-julep/124335>\
**Category:** Internals & Design\
**Tags:** proposal, filesystem, path, rfc\
**Created:** [January 1, 2025, 12:37pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/designing-a-paths-julep/124335 "2025-01-01T12:37:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 31

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**Author:** ![MilesCranmer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/milescranmer/32/21070_2.png) [@MilesCranmer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/MilesCranmer)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 2:39pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/designing-a-paths-julep/124335/31 "2025-01-03T14:39:18Z")

</div>

### Here are some examples of infix operator APIs from a few select languages (C++, Python, Haskell, Nim, Ruby).

> **(click me! It's long so I'm wrapping this in a toggle to not pollute the thread with walls of text:)**
>
> **C++** (`std::filesystem`)
> 
> - Join paths: `/`
> - Change file extension: `.replace_extension(...)`
> - Get parent directory: `.parent_path()`
> - Get file name: `.filename()`
> - Get current working directory: `current_path()`
> - Example:
> 
> ```cpp
> #include <filesystem>
> namespace fs = std::filesystem;
> fs::path base = fs::path("dir");
> fs::path path = base / "file.txt";
> auto parent = path.parent_path();
> auto newPath = path.replace_extension(".bak");
> 
> ```
> 
> **Python (`pathlib`)**
> 
> - Join paths: `/` or `.joinpath(...)`
> - Change file extension: `.with_suffix(...)`
> - Get parent directory: `.parent`
> - Get file name: `.name`
> - Get current working directory: `Path.cwd()`
> - Example:
> 
> ```python
> from pathlib import Path
> base = Path('dir')
> path = base / 'file.txt'
> parent = path.parent
> new_path = path.with_suffix('.bak')
> 
> ```
> 
> **Haskell** (`filepath` package)
> 
> - Join paths: `</>`
> - Change file extension: `-<.>`
> - String joining for extensions: `<.>`
> - Get parent directory: `takeDirectory`
> - Get file name: `takeFileName`
> - Get current working directory: `getCurrentDirectory`
> - Example:
> 
> ```haskell
> import System.FilePath
> base = "dir"
> path = base </> "file.txt"
> parent = takeDirectory path
> newPath = path -<.> "bak"
> 
> ```
> 
> **Nim** (built-in)
> 
> - Join paths: `/`
> - Change file extension: `changeFileExt(...)`
> - Get parent directory: `parentDir(...)`
> - Get file name: `extractFileName(...)`
> - Get current working directory: `getCurrentDir()`
> - Example:
> 
> ```nim
> import os
> let base = "dir"
> let path = base / "file.txt"
> let parent = parentDir(path)
> let newPath = changeFileExt(path, ".bak")
> 
> ```
> 
> **Ruby (`Pathname` library)**
> 
> - Join paths: `/`
> - Change file extension: `.sub_ext(...)`
> - Get parent directory: `.parent`
> - Get file name: `.basename`
> - Get current working directory: `Pathname.getwd`
> - Example:
> 
> ```ruby
> require 'pathname'
> base = Pathname.new('dir')
> path = base / 'file.txt'
> parent = path.parent
> new_path = path.sub_ext('.bak')
> 
> ```

I do kind of have an admiration for Haskell’s syntax but it’s probably unrealistic for Julia at this stage. Also would make more sense if `<>` was string concat (which it isn’t even in Haskell… weird).

Also, I continue to be surprised by how clean C++17 looks!

One theme from poking around is that nearly all languages that _do_ have an infix operator use `/` apart from Haskell which uses `</>` instead.

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