resource directories

[benjimin]

Half of the tests contain this anti-pattern or boiler-plate, which ought not be needed:

try:
    import pathLocate
except:
    from unittests import pathLocate

# Add parent folder to python path
unittest_dir = pathLocate.getUnitTestDirectory()
sys.path.append(pathLocate.getRootDirectory())

The manipulation of sys.path should be unnecessary if the tests are invoked from an appropriate context.

Use of this approach (pathLocate inspects __file__) for finding absolute paths to resources (such as config files and test data) is discouraged in favour of importlib.resources (preferred) or pkg_resources (as noted in issue #65).

Also, unclear what unittests.pathLocate should be.