[Python-Dev] Next version of PEP278 - universal newline support (original) (raw)

Jon Ribbens jon+python-dev@unequivocal.co.uk
Fri, 15 Mar 2002 16:52:54 +0000

Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> wrote:

Me too. But it opens up the nasty problem of the gazillions of Unix-only programmers who never use 'b' for binary files. We've fixed that in the std library (since it's cross platform), but I'm not too comfortable with imposing this on everybody without a transition period, given that this is both common knowledge and has "just worked" for 12 years in Python.

Please don't change this. The reason I use Python is because it Does What You Tell It To, unlike certain other languages with the same initial. If you make the standard simple form of the open() call, i.e. open(filename) start doing weird shit to files that is a big step down the Dark Path to Perlishness. Please leave open() like it is and make a new mode specifier for doing new things.

(And yes I know on Windows it already does stupid things, but that's the operating system's fault not the language.)