[Python-Dev] Removing the implicit str() call from printing API

[M.-A. Lemburg]

So far, noone has commented on this idea. 

I would like to go ahead and check in patch which passes through 
Unicode objects to the file-object's .write() method while leaving
the standard str() call for all other objects in place.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
______________________________________________________________________
Company:                                        http://www.egenix.com/
Consulting:                                    http://www.lemburg.com/
Python Pages:                           http://www.lemburg.com/python/

"M.-A. Lemburg" wrote:
> 
> There was some discussion about this subject before, but nothing
> much happened, so here we go again...
> 
> Printing in Python is a rather complicated task. It involves many
> different APIs, flags, etc. Deep down in the printing machinery
> there is a hidden call to str() which converts the to be printed
> object into a string object.
> 
> This is fine for non-string objects like numbers, but causes trouble
> when it comes to printing Unicode objects due to the auto-conversions
> this causes.
> 
> There is a patch on SF which tries to remedy this, but it introduces
> a special attribute to maintain backward compatibility:
> 
> http://sourceforge.net/patch/?func=detailpatch&patch_id=103685&group_id=5470
> 
> I don't really like the idea to add such an attribute to the
> file object. Instead, I think that we should simply pass along
> Unicode objects as-is to the file object's .write() method and
> have the method take care of the conversion.
> 
> This will break some code, since not all file-like objects expect
> non-strings as input to the .write() method, but I think this small
> code breakage is worth it as it allows us to redirect printing
> to streams which convert Unicode input into a specific output
> encoding.
> 
> Thoughts ?
> 
> --
> Marc-Andre Lemburg
> ______________________________________________________________________
> Company:                                        http://www.egenix.com/
> Consulting:                                    http://www.lemburg.com/
> Python Pages:                           http://www.lemburg.com/python/
> 
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