[Python-Dev] Dropping bytes "support" in json

["Martin v. Löwis"]

> We're in the process of forward-porting the recent (massive) json updates to
> 3.1, and we are also thinking of dropping remnants of support of the bytes type
> in the json library (in 3.1, again). This bytes support almost didn't work at
> all, but there was a lot of C and Python code for it nevertheless. We're also
> thinking of dropping the "encoding" argument in the various APIs, since it is
> useless.
> 
> Under the new situation, json would only ever allow str as input, and output str
> as well. By posting here, I want to know whether anybody would oppose this
> (knowing, once again, that bytes support is already broken in the current py3k
> trunk).

What does Bob Ippolito think about this change? IIUC, he considers
simplejson's speed one of its primary advantages, and also attributes it
to the fact that he can parse directly out of byte strings, and marshal
into them (which is important, as you typically receive them over the
wire). Having to run them through a codec slows parsing down.

Regards,
Martin