[Python-Dev] unicodeobject.c,2.139,2.140 checkin (original) (raw)

M.-A. Lemburg mal@lemburg.com
Fri, 26 Apr 2002 18:48:07 +0200

Guido van Rossum wrote:

> In the long run, I think that the Unicode type should be > used for all text data and strings for binary data of unknown > encoding. I think you're underestimating the tenacity of ASCII and Latin-1.

This has nothing to do with a particular encoding, it's about meta data: much like you can use numbers to represent e.g. money or date/time values, you always need to store this meta information somewhere and object types are the ideal carrier for such meta data.

It's an option which everybody working in the application space should consider. If you start working this way now, it'll pay off a few years ahead regardeless of whether it is useful for you now or not.

-- Marc-Andre Lemburg CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH

Company & Consulting: http://www.egenix.com/ Python Software: http://www.egenix.com/files/python/