Converting relative path references to absolute references in code

Hi all,

As I have stated in a previous thread, I am considering getting a robot to
follow a map written in SVG. How should I handle the path element? The first
problem I see is to convert all relative references to absolute references.
How is this done? I did see the code at
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9677885/convert-svg-path-to-absolute-comm
ands/9677915#9677915

but cannot fully follow the logic. Moreover, the code is in java script
which I am not familiar with. Yes, I can sort of understand the basics but
not enough to translate the function to a python routine.

Pranav