def read(*parts):
    """
    Build an absolute path from *parts* and and return the contents of the
    resulting file.  Assume UTF-8 encoding.
    """
    with codecs.open(os.path.join(HERE, *parts), "rb", "utf-8") as f:
        return f.read()
def _split(self, path):
        if "/" in path:
            subdir, rest = path.split("/", 1)
        else:
            subdir, rest = path, ""
        if not subdir:
            raise error.ProgrammingError("path cannot be absolute")
        return subdir, rest