[Python-Dev] Why can't I encode/decode base64 without importing a module?

[Victor Stinner]

Hi,

Your question is discussed since 4 years in the following issue:
http://bugs.python.org/issue7475

The last proposition is to add transform() and untransform() methods
to bytes and str types. But nobody implemented the idea. If I remember
correctly, the missing point is how to define which types are
supported by a codec (ex: only bytes for bz2 codec, bytes and str for
rot13).

Victor

2013/4/22 Ram Rachum <ram at rachum.com>:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Take a look at this question:
>
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16122435/python-3-how-do-i-use-bytes-to-bytes-and-string-to-string-encodings/16122472?noredirect=1#comment23034787_16122472
>
> Is there really no way to use base64 that's as short as:
>
>     b'whatever'.encode('base64')
>
> Because doing this:
>
>     import codecs
>     codecs.decode(b"whatever", "base64_codec")
>
> Or this:
>
>     import base64
>     encoded = base64.b64encode(b'whatever')
>
> Is cumbersome!
>
> Why can't I do something like b'whatever'.encode('base64')? Or maybe using a
> different method than `encode`?
>
>
> Thanks,
> Ram.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Python-Dev mailing list
> Python-Dev at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev
> Unsubscribe:
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/victor.stinner%40gmail.com
>