[Python-Dev] Printing and unicode (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido@python.org
Wed, 13 Nov 2002 16:17:30 -0500

> I'm not sure about those names, but I agree that the encoding should > be forced when the StringIO instance is created. Given that using > Unicode with these is currently fragile at best, maybe we should say > that unless you give an encoding argument, it's a byte stream and > doesn't allow Unicode at all? That would be consistent with cStringIO.

But it would break compatibility, atleast with xml.dom.minidom.Node.write, which support StringIO currently, and will collect Unicode strings in it.

Would it be acceptable if StringIO required you to be consistent, i.e. write only Unicode or only 8-bit strings, and never mix them?

That would be some kind of magical behavior; the encoding attribute should be set to reflect the mode after the first write, and should be None initially (or some other way to indicate the magic).

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)