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Date: Fri, 15 May 2015 01:59:00 +1000
Subject: Re: Survey -- Move To Trash function in Python?
From: Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
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Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:90609

On Fri, May 15, 2015 at 1:49 AM, Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> On 2015-05-14, Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> wrote:
>
>> I'd like to do a little survey, and get a quick show of hands.
>>
>> How many people have written GUI or text-based applications or
>> scripts where a "Move file to trash" function would be useful?
>
> How would you even define what "move to trash" means in a standard
> way?
>
> Even withing the limited context of something like a mail client, it's
> meaning varies depending on mail store format or which IMAP server
> you're talking to.
>
> Or are you assuming the only thing that can be "moved to trash" is a
> file?

AIUI this is specifically about files.

I have never used such a feature, and generally found them to be more
annoying than useful. The times when I want to mark a file for
deletion either now or at some undefined time in the future (at the
file system's discretion) are approximately zero; either I want the
file, or I can delete it immediately. Given that actually-removed
files can usually be undeleted if their disk space hasn't been
reclaimed, I don't think trash cans really help much.

Plus, I think it's a UI insanity when a console program dumps
something in the trash, which to me has always felt like a GUI file
manager tool.

That said, though, I think a standardized API for trashing files is
not a bad thing; and it's not something that will need huge API
changes, so the costs of feature-freeze would be low.

ChrisA