[Python-Dev] Bytes path support

[Tres Seaver]

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On 08/19/2014 01:43 PM, Ben Hoyt wrote:
>>>> The official policy is that we want them [support for bytes
>>>> paths in stdlib functions] to go away, but reality so far has
>>>> not budged. We will continue to hold our breath though. :-)
>>> 
>>> Does that mean that new APIs should explicitly not support bytes?
>>> I'm thinking of os.scandir() (PEP 471), which I'm implementing at
>>> the moment. I was originally going to make it support bytes so it
>>> was compatible with listdir, but maybe that's a bad idea. Bytes
>>> paths are essentially broken on Windows.
>> 
>> Bytes paths are "essential" on Unix, though, so I don't think we
>> should create new low-level APIs that don't support bytes.
> 
> Fair enough. I don't quite understand, though -- why is the "official 
> policy" to kill something that's "essential" on *nix?

ISTM that the policy is based on a fantasy that "it looks like text to me
in my use cases, so therefore it must be text for everyone."


Tres.
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Tres Seaver          +1 540-429-0999          tseaver at palladion.com
Palladion Software   "Excellence by Design"    http://palladion.com
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