[Python-Dev] str object going in Py3K (original) (raw)

Bill Janssen janssen at parc.com
Wed Feb 15 22:27:15 CET 2006


Well, I probably am, but that's not the reason. Reading has nothing to do with it.

The default mode (text) corrupts data on write on a certain platform (Windows) by inserting extra bytes in the data stream. This bug particularly exhibits itself when programs developed on Linux or Mac OS X are then run on a Windows platform. I think it's a bug to default to a mode which modifies the data stream. The default mode should be 'binary'; people interested in exploiting the obsolete Windows distinction between "text" and "binary" should have to use a mode switch (I suggest "t") to put a file stream in 'text' mode.

Bill

On 2/15/06, Bill Janssen <janssen at parc.com> wrote: > The default behavior of the current open() in opening files as text is > particularly grating.

Why? Are you perhaps one of those rare folks who read more binary data than text? -- --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)



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