zipp

Using zipp feels incredibly natural if you're already comfortable with pathlib. The API mirrors Path objects almost perfectly, so you can use familiar methods like .read_text(), .read_bytes(), .iterdir(), and the division operator for path traversal. This consistency means virtually no learning curve - I've dropped it into projects and had it working in minutes.

The type hints are excellent and IDE autocomplete works flawlessly. When you access a Path object from a zip file, you get proper suggestions for all the expected methods. Error handling is sensible - attempting to open non-existent files raises clear FileNotFoundError exceptions just like regular pathlib, making debugging straightforward.

The main use case is providing a unified interface for reading both filesystem and zip file contents, which it handles perfectly. It's particularly valuable when you need to abstract away whether data comes from a directory or a zip archive, letting you write code that works with either without conditionals.

If you've used pathlib, you already know how to use zipp. The API is intentionally designed to mirror Path objects, making it incredibly intuitive. You can use the familiar `/` operator for path joining, `.open()` for reading files, and `.iterdir()` for listing contents. The transition from working with filesystem paths to zip file paths feels natural and requires almost no documentation lookup.

Error messages are straightforward - you get standard FileNotFoundError and similar exceptions that Python developers expect. Debugging is rarely needed because the API does what you'd expect. The main gotcha is understanding that you're working with a read-only view into the zip file, so operations like writing or modifying require understanding the underlying zipfile context.

Community support is limited simply because the package is so focused and simple - there aren't many questions to ask. The official documentation is minimal but sufficient since the pathlib parallels handle most learning. It's a utility package that stays out of your way and just works, which is exactly what you want for something this fundamental.

Using zipp feels natural if you already know pathlib. The main entry point is `zipp.Path()` which wraps a zipfile and lets you navigate it with the familiar `/` operator and methods like `.read_text()`, `.iterdir()`, and `.is_file()`. I've used it in several projects for reading configuration and data files from zip archives without extracting them to disk, and it works exactly as expected.

The biggest issue is documentation - it's sparse. There's a basic README with a couple examples, but no comprehensive API docs or cookbook. I had to read the source code to understand edge cases like how it handles nested zips or what happens with symlinks. Error messages are generally clear when you access non-existent files, but some edge cases give you raw zipfile exceptions that aren't very helpful.

Day-to-day usage is smooth once you understand the basics. The API surface is small and intuitive, so there's not much to remember. Stack Overflow has limited coverage, but GitHub issues are reasonably responsive. For the common case of "I want to read files from a zip without extracting," it's significantly cleaner than using zipfile directly.