def METHOD_NAME(lines: Tuple[str]) -> Set[str]:
    """Creates a set that removes empty lines and comments."""
    lines = [ln.strip() for ln in lines]
    # removes first `/` character for posix and `\\` for windows
    lines = [ln.lstrip("/").lstrip("\\") for ln in lines if ln != "" and not ln.startswith("#")]
    # convert to path and converting back to string to sanitize the pattern
    return {str(Path(ln)) for ln in lines}