[Python-Dev] What type of object mmap.read_byte should return on py3k?

[Victor Stinner]

About m.read_byte(), we have two choices:
 (a) Py_BuildValue("b", value) => 0
 (b) Py_BuildValue("y#", &value, 1) => b"\x00"

About m.write_byte(x), we have also two choices:
 (a) PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "b:write_byte", &value): write_byte(0)
 (b) PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "y#:write_byte", &value, &length) and
     check for length=1: write_byte(b"\x00")

(b) choices are close to Python 2.x API. But we can already use 
m.read(1)->b"\x00" and m.write(b"\x00") to use byte string of 1 byte. So it 
would be better to break the API and use integers, (a) choices which require 
also documentation changes:

mmap.read_byte()
   Returns a string of length 1 containing the character at the current file
   position, and advances the file position by 1.

mmap.write_byte(byte)
   Write the single-character string byte into memory at the current position
   of the file pointer; the file position is advanced by 1. If the mmap was
   created with ACCESS_READ, then writing to it will throw a TypeError
   exception.

-- 
Victor Stinner aka haypo
http://www.haypocalc.com/blog/