[Python-Dev] transitioning from % to {} formatting

[Nick Coghlan]

Vinay Sajip wrote:
> So there's no need to change modules like logging to explicitly
> provide support for {}-formatting? What's not to like? ;-) Something
> like this perhaps should have been added in at the same time as
> str.format went in.

I believe classes like fmt_braces/fmt_dollar/fmt_percent will be part of
a solution, but they aren't a complete solution on their own. (Naming
the three major string formatting techniques by the key symbols involved
is a really good idea though)

The two major problems with them:

1. It's easy to inadvertently convert them back to normal strings. If a
formatting API even calls "str" on the format string then we end up with
a problem (and switching to containment instead of inheritance doesn't
really help, since all objects implement __str__).

2. They don't help with APIs that expect a percent-formatted string and
do more with it than just pass it to str.__mod__ (e.g. inspecting it for
particular values such as '%(asctime)s')

Still, it's worth considering adding the three fmt_* classes to the
string module to see how far they can get us in adapting the formats for
different APIs.

Note that I don't think these concepts are fully baked yet, so we
shouldn't do anything in a hurry - and anything that does happen should
be via a PEP so we can flush out more issues.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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