[Python-Dev] file() vs open(), round 7

[Fredrik Lundh]

M.-A. Lemburg wrote:

>> can we add a opentext factory for file/codecs.open while we're at it ?
>
> Why a new factory function ? Can't we just redirect to codecs.open()
> in case an encoding keyword argument is passed to open() ?!

I think open is overloaded enough as it is.  Using separate functions for distinct
use cases is also a lot better than keyword trickery.

Here's a rough draft:

    def textopen(name, mode="r", encoding=None):
        if "U" not in mode:
            mode += "U"
        if encoding:
            return codecs.open(name, mode, encoding)
        return file(name, mode)

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