[Python-Dev] Internal representation of strings and Micropython

[Paul Moore]

On 5 June 2014 14:15, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> As I've said before in other contexts, find me Windows, Mac OS X and
> JVM developers, or educators and scientists that are as concerned by
> the text model changes as folks that are primarily focused on Linux
> system (including network) programming, and I'll be more willing to
> concede the point.

There is once again a strong selection bias in this discussion, by its
very nature. People who like the new model don't have anything to
complain about, and so are not heard.

Just to support Nick's point, I for one find the Python 3 text model a
huge benefit, both in practical terms of making my programs more
robust, and educationally, as I have a far better understanding of
encodings and their issues than I ever did under Python 2. Whenever a
discussion like this occurs, I find it hard not to resent the people
arguing that the new model should be taken away from me and replaced
with a form of the old error-prone (for me) approach - as if it was in
my best interests.

Internal details don't bother me - using UTF8 and having indexing be
potentially O(N) is of little relevance. But make me work with a
string type that *doesn't* abstract a string as a sequence of Unicode
code points and I'll get very upset.

Paul