[Python-Dev] Strings: '\012' -> '\n'

[Guido van Rossum]

> Minor nit about this idea: it makes decoding repr() style
> strings harder for external tools and it could cause breakage
> (e.g. if "\n" is usedby the encoding for some other purpose).

Such a tool would be broken.  If it accepts string literals it should
accept all forms of escapes.

> BTW, since there are a gazillion ways to encode strings into
> 7-bit ASCII, why not use the new codec design to add additional
> output schemes for 8-bit strings ?!
> 
> Strings have an .encode() method as well...

Good idea!  This could also be used to "hexify" a string, for which
currently one of the quickest ways is still the hack

    "%02x"*len(s) % tuple(s)

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)