Use Cross-platform Functions Instead of Linux Only Shell Commands

[BSalita]

There's a few places in Lesson 1 that uses Linux-only shell commands. This is an issue for Windows users. Why not use platform independent code? For example:

Linux only: !ls {PATH}
Cross-platform: os.listdir(PATH)

Linux only: !ls {PATH}valid
Cross-platform: os.listdir(PATH + 'valid')

Linux only: files = !ls {PATH}valid/cats | head
Cross-platform: files = os.listdir(PATH + 'valid/cats')

Linux only: !rm -rf {PATH}tmp
Cross-platform: os.removedirs(PATH + 'tmp')

[ChrisPalmerNZ]

I agree with this comment, but what is the cross-platform version of this? (from the lesson4-IMDB notebook)
!find {TRN} -name '*.txt' | xargs cat | wc -w

[BSalita]

May I answer a question with a question??? How would you perform this operation if shell commands weren't implemented in jupyter?

[ChrisPalmerNZ]

I don't know how - which is why I asked the original question :) - I guess I would have to write some Python code to do it...

[BSalita]

Right. So far I'm able to code one-to-one replacements of non-portable shell commands with os functions. The example you gave requires some python code to replace the non-portable shell command. The downside of using shell commands is lack of portability which is problematic for a MOOC audience.

[jph00]

I'd be happy to accept a PR that replaced shell commands with python x-platform equivalents :)