PEP 305 - CSV File API

[Ian Bicking]

On Fri, 2003-01-31 at 18:17, Andrew Dalke wrote:
>    - I prefer 'append' over 'write'
> 
> Consider a copy.  Under the current scheme
> 
>    def copy(input, output):
>      for row in input:
>        output.write(row)
> 
> This allows the input to be a list or a csv.reader or any other
> iterable objects.  However, output objects must implement the
> 'write' method, which for other cases is something which takes
> a string, not something which takes an object.
> 
> OTOH, consider
> 
>    def copy(input, output):
>      for row in input:
>        output.append(row)

I agree that "write" is not the appropriate method -- I can't ever
remember seeing a write method that didn't take a string and write it to
a stream.  Well, there's some that may as a convenience call str() on
the object passed, but that doesn't significantly change the feel of the
method.  Using it to write a row definitely seems wrong.  

But append makes the output seem like a sequence, when it certainly
isn't -- it's a stream, like a file.  Again, a false cognate.

I would prefer writerow(), which implies it's a stream, but does not
imply it takes a string.

-- 
Ian Bicking           Colorstudy Web Development
ianb at colorstudy.com   http://www.colorstudy.com
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