[Python-Dev] Decoding incomplete unicode (original) (raw)

"Martin v. Löwis" martin at v.loewis.de
Wed Aug 25 21:56:25 CEST 2004

M.-A. Lemburg wrote:

Martin, there are two reasons for hiding away these details:

1. we need to be able to change the codec state without breaking the APIs

That will be possible with the currently-proposed patch. The _codecs methods are not public API, so changing them would not be an API change.

2. we don't want the state to be altered by the user

We are all consenting adults, and we can't really prevent it, anyway. For example, the user may pass an old state, or a state originating from a different codec (instance). We need to support this gracefully (i.e. with a proper Python exception).

A single object serves this best and does not create a whole plethora of new APIs in the codecs module. This is not over-design, but serves a reason.

It does put a burden on codec developers, which need to match the "official" state representation policy. Of course, if they are allowed to return a tuple representing their state, that would be fine with me.

Regards, Martin

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