[Python-Dev] adding a bytes sequence type to Python (original) (raw)

Skip Montanaro skip at pobox.com
Thu Aug 12 16:09:05 CEST 2004

(changing the subject - sorry i didn't do it in my first two messages...)

>> 1. Make bytes a synonuym for str.

Guido> Hmm...  I worry that a simple alias would just encourage confused
Guido> usage, since the compiler won't check.  I'd rather see bytes an
Guido> alias for a bytes array as defined by the array module.

You're right. This could probably be added now ("now" being 2.5) with little or no problem. My thought was to get the name in there quickly (could be done in 2.4) with some supporting documentation so people could begin modifying their code.

>> 2. Warn about the use of bytes as a variable name.

Guido> Is this really needed?  Builtins don't byte variable names.

I suppose this could be dispensed with. Let pychecker handle it.

>> 3. Introduce b"..." literals as a synonym for current string
>> literals, and have them *not* generate warnings if non-ascii
>> characters were used in them without a coding cookie.

Guido> I expecet all sorts of problems with that, such as what it would
Guido> mean if Unicode or multibyte characters are used in the source.

My intent in proposing b"..." literals was that they would be allowed in any source file. Their contents would not be interpreted in any way. One simple use case: identifying the magic number of a binary file type of some sort. That might well be a constant to programmers manipulating that sort of file and have nothing to do with Unicode at all.

Guido> Do we really need byte array literals at all?

I think so. Martin already pointed out an example where a string literal is used today for a sequences of bytes that's put out on the wire as-is. It's just convenient that the protocol was developed in such a way that most of its meta-data is plain ASCII.

Skip

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