[Python-Dev] Fwd: PEP 467: Minor API improvements for bytes & bytearray

[Barry Warsaw]

I think the biggest API "problem" is that default iteration returns integers
instead of bytes.  That's a real pain.

I'm not sure .iterbytes() is the best name for spelling iteration over bytes
instead of integers though.  Given that we can't change __iter__(), I
personally would perhaps prefer a simple .bytes property over which if you
iterated you would receive bytes, e.g.

>>> data = bytes([1, 2, 3])
>>> for i in data:
...  print(i)
... 
1
2
3
>>> for b in data.bytes:
...   print(b)
... 
b'\x01'
b'\x02'
b'\x03'

There are no backward compatibility issues with this of course.

As for the single-int-ctor forms, they're inconvenient and arguably "wrong",
but I think we can live with it.  OTOH, I don't see any harm by adding the
.zeros() alternative constructor.  I'd probably want to spell the .byte()
alternative constructor .from_int() but I also don't think the status quo (or
.byte()) is that much of a usability problem.

The API churn problem comes about when you start wanting to deprecate the
single-int-ctor form.  *If* that part gets adopted, it should have a really
long deprecation cycle, IMO.

Cheers,
-Barry