[Python-3000] Array typecode 'w' vs. 'u' and UCS4 builds (original) (raw)

Travis Oliphant oliphant.travis at ieee.org
Fri Oct 12 23:37:33 CEST 2007

Christian Heimes wrote:

Travis E. Oliphant wrote:

The problem is to keep the array typecodes somewhat consistent with the typecodes in PEP 3118 which will be in the struct module. How about making 'U' be the typecode that translates to 'u' or 'w' depending on the platform and supporting both 'u' and 'w' on all platforms by appropriate translation of bytes on getting and setting? Now I see your point. :) Your solution sounds feasible but is it realizable on all platforms? I once hit a thick wall of bricks during my work on PythonNET. I tried to make it compatible with Mono and UCS-4 builds of Python but it was really hard because the .NET standards don't care about anything else than a 16bit wchart which doesn't even translate to UTF-16. I fear that 'w' may hit a similar wall on Windows.

I think it would be feasible, but I'm not sure it is worth it at this point. My suggestion right now (and what I've done) is to back-out the 'w' typecode for the array module and just leave it as 'u' as before.

I'll check in this change.

-Travis

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