[Python-Dev] PEP 383: Non-decodable Bytes in System Character Interfaces (original) (raw)

Dirkjan Ochtman dirkjan at ochtman.nl
Wed Apr 22 14:31:09 CEST 2009

On 22/04/2009 14:20, glyph at divmod.com wrote:

-1. On UNIX, character data is not sufficient to represent paths. We must, must, must continue to have a simple bytes interface to these APIs. Covering it up in layers of obscure encoding hacks will not make the problem go away, it will just make it harder to understand.

As a hg developer, I have to concur. Keeping bytes-based APIs intact would make porting hg to py3k much, much easier. You may be able to imagine that dealing with paths correctly cross-platform on a VCS is a major PITA, and py3k is currently not helping the situation.

Cheers,

Dirkjan

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