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On Sun, Aug 17, 2014 at 2:41 PM, Barry Warsaw <barry@python.org> wrote:
I think the biggest API "problem" is that default iteration returns integers
instead of bytes. That's a real pain.
what is really needed for this NOT to be a pain is a byte scalar.
numpy has a scalar type for every type it supports -- this is a GOOD THING (tm):
In \[53\]: a = np.array((3,4,5), dtype=np.uint8)
In \[54\]: a
Out\[54\]: array(\[3, 4, 5\], dtype=uint8)
In \[55\]: a\[1\]
Out\[55\]: 4
In \[56\]: type(a\[1\])
Out\[56\]: numpy.uint8
In \[57\]: a\[1\].shape
Out\[57\]: ()
The lack of a character type is a major source of "type errors" in python (the whole list of strings vs a single string problem -- both return a sequence when you index into them or iterate over them)
Anyway, the character ship has long since sailed, but maybe a byte scalar would be a good idea?
And FWIW, I think the proposal does make for a better, cleaner API.
Whether that's worth the deprecation is not clear to me, though as someone whose been on the verge of making the leap to 3.\* for ages, this isn't going to make any difference.
-Chris
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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