using binary in python

[Marko Rauhamaa]

Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com>:

> On Tue, Nov 10, 2015 at 1:32 AM, Marko Rauhamaa <marko at pacujo.net> wrote:
>> Yes, and lists and dicts and ints and objects and all. No problem
>> there.
>>
>> However, when filenames and sys.stdin deal with text, things are
>> getting iffy.
>
> So where do you mark the boundary between the human and the OS? If I
> create a GUI, I should be able to put an entry field down that accepts
> Unicode text. And if I make a web form and an HTTP server, a user
> should be able to type Unicode text into an <input> field and send
> that along. Either way, my program should get a Unicode string. Why
> shouldn't I be able to do the same with input()? And why, if a user
> enters a plausible file name, should that not be able to be opened as
> a file?

sys.stdin is not (primarily) a human interface. It is the canonical
channel to relay the input data to the program. The results of the
computation are emitted through sys.stdout.

The input data could well be, say, UTF-8-encoded plain text, or a PDF
file, or a Zip file, or a music recording.

As for file names, even UTF-8 Linux environments often contain filenames
that are illegal UTF-8. Using surrogate characters is a clever trick,
but might even lead to security risks when more than one pathname can
map to the same surrogate encoding.

> At what point do you say "this is for humans, this is for machines"?
> Isn't it Python's job to spare us that hassle?

Python is certainly trying to do that.

   Flik: I was just trying to help.
   Mr. Soil: Then help us; *don't* help us. 

   <URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120623/quotes>


I program for Linux. I use different programming languages, but the
target is Linux. The systems I build and deal with consist of different
components written in different programming languages but they all
follow Linux-y conventions to work harmoniously together. I don't in any
way benefit from a smoke screen a programming language offers to place
in front of the operating system.


Marko