[Python-3000] Unicode and OS strings

[Greg Ewing]

Gregory P. Smith wrote:
> argv is the C/C++ name for bytes, lets not
> confuse people.

C has never made a clear distinction between characters
and bytes, using the type 'char' for both. It got away
with it for the same reason that Python did until
unicode came along. I'm pretty sure most people using
argv in C thought of it as holding characters. Certainly
I always did.

As far as I know, most other places in Python are going
to deal with the changes by keeping the existing text
APIs as returning text, e.g. open() gives you a text
mode I/O object by default with an assumed encoding,
and to get bytes you need to do something explicit
(e.g. opening the file in binary mode).

I don't see why argv should be different.

--
Greg