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[Python-Dev] RFC: PEP 460: Add bytes % args and bytes.format(args) to Python 3.5

Georg Brandl g.brandl at gmx.net
Sat Jan 11 14:54:23 CET 2014 
Am 11.01.2014 14:49, schrieb Georg Brandl:
> Am 11.01.2014 10:44, schrieb Stephen Hansen:
> 
>> I mean, its not like the "bytes" type lacks knowledge of the subset of bytes
>> that happen to be 7-bit ascii-compatible and can't perform text-ish operations
>> on them--
>> 
>>   Python 3.3.3 (v3.3.3:c3896275c0f6, Nov 18 2013, 21:18:40) [MSC v.1600 32 bit
>> (Intel)] on win32
>>   Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>   >>> b"stephen hansen".title()
>>   b'Stephen Hansen'
>> 
>> How is this not a practical recognition that yes, while bytes are byte streams
>> and not text, a huge subset of bytes are text-y, and as long as we maintain the
>> barrier between higher characters and implicit conversion therein, we're fine?
>> 
>> I don't see the difference here. There is a very real, practical need to
>> interpolate bytes. This very real, practical need includes the very real
>> recognition that converting 12345 to b'12345' is not something weird, unusual,
>> and subject to the thorny issues of Encodings. It is not violating the doctrine
>> of separation of powers between Text and Bytes.
> 
> This. Exactly. Thanks for putting it so nicely, Stephen.

To elaborate: if the bytes type didn't have all this ASCII-aware functionality
already, I think we would have (and be using) a dedicated "asciistr" type right
now.  But it has the functionality, and it's way too late to remove it.

Georg
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