[Python-Dev] Draft PEP: Deprecate codecs.StreamReader and codecs.StreamWriter (original) (raw)

Antoine Pitrou solipsis at pitrou.net
Thu Jul 7 16:28:07 CEST 2011

On Thu, 7 Jul 2011 06:53:50 +0000 (UTC) Vinay Sajip <vinay_sajip at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

Benjamin Peterson <benjamin python.org> writes:

> > 2011/7/6 Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan gmail.com>: > > The API of the resulting object is the same (i.e. they're file-like > > objects). The behavioural differences are due to cases where the > > codec-specific classes are currently broken. > > Yes, but as we all know too well, people are surely relying on > whatever behavior there is, broken or not. There's also the fact that code which currently runs under 2.x and 3.x would stop working if codecs.StreamReader/StreamWriter were to go away.

That's a fact of life for any deprecation. But it only stops working after the deprecation period has expired. And deprecated stuff can actually stay in for a long time, depending on its popularity.

The main point of the PEP, IMO, is actually the deprecation itself. By deprecating, we signal that something isn't actively maintained anymore, and that a (allegedly better) alternative is available. I think that's a very reasonable thing to do, regardless of whether or not the "thing" actually gets removed in a later version.

Regards

Antoine.

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