[Python-Dev] PEP 383: Non-decodable Bytes in System Character Interfaces

["Martin v. Löwis"]

> How do get a printable unicode version of these path strings if they
> contain none unicode data?

Define "printable". One way would be to use a regular expression,
replacing all codes in a certain range with a question mark.

> I'm guessing that an app has to understand that filenames come in two forms
> unicode and bytes if its not utf-8 data. Why not simply return string if
> its valid utf-8 otherwise return bytes?

That would have been an alternative solution, and the one that 2.x uses
for listdir. People didn't like it.

Regards,
Martin