[Python-Dev] My work on Python3 and non-ascii paths is done

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

First, let me offer congratulations and heartfelt thanks for your hard
work!

Victor Stinner writes:

 > For network protocols, I don't know. It looks like the new email
 > modules will offer two API levels: low level (native type) using
 > bytes, high level using str (unicode). I don't know if the high
 > level API uses the PEP 383 or not.

Give that about 0.3% of the mail in my system uses the UNKNOWN
encoding in MIME-words, "best effort" to decode headers will require
it.  (Half-decoded text is a nightmare, of course.)

 > I don't use strict rules. Each problem is different.

I agree.  The reason is that the application must be designed to
handle PEP 383 strings.  If it isn't, you're just postponing the
exception (perhaps to an unsuspecting second application).  PEP 383
strings are an excellent, consistent way to handle broken text if your
application is like email, where the design specifies passing around
uninterpreted data, but transforming the representation is desirable.
But many applications *should* just raise an exception here.