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[Python-Dev] bytes.from_hex()

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Sat Feb 18 23:48:10 CET 2006 
"Josiah Carlson" <jcarlson at uci.edu> wrote in message 
news:20060218005534.5FA8.JCARLSON at uci.edu...

> Again, the problem is ambiguity; what does bytes.recode(something) mean?
> Are we encoding _to_ something, or are we decoding _from_ something?
> Are we going to need to embed the direction in the encoding/decoding
> name (to_base64, from_base64, etc.)?

To me, that seems simple and clear.  b.recode('from_base64') obviously 
requires that b meet the restrictions of base64.  Similarly for 'from_hex'.

> That doesn't any better than binascii.b2a_base64

I think 'from_base64' is *much* better.  I think there are now 4 
string-to-string transform modules that do similar things.  Not optimal to 
me.

 >What about .reencode and .redecode?  It seems as
> though the 're' added as a prefix to .encode and .decode makes it
> clearer that you get the same type back as you put in, and it is also
> unambiguous to direction.

To me, the 're' prefix is awkward, confusing, and misleading.

Terry J. Reedy
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