def normPath(path: str) -> str:
    """ Helper function that's mission is to normalize path strings. Accomplishes this by changing path
    strings that are passed in to it from Windows style path strings (unescaped backslashes) and windows style
    python path strings (escaped backslashes i.e. double backslash) to unix style strings (forward slashes)

    :param path: str, path to normalize.
    :return:
    """
    # first convert any instances of double backslash paths (e.g. windows python style)
    # to single backslash paths
    result = '\\'.join(path.split(r'\\'))
    # then, convert all single backslash paths (e.g. windows style) to unix-style paths (also compatible)
    # with python in windows
    result = '/'.join(result.split('\\'))
    return result