[Python-Dev] PEP 383: Non-decodable Bytes in System Character Interfaces (original) (raw)

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Thu Apr 30 05:46:44 CEST 2009

Glenn Linderman wrote:

On approximately 4/29/2009 1:28 PM, came the following characters from

So where is the ambiguity here? None. But not everyone can read all the Python source code to try to understand it; they expect the documentation to help them avoid that. Because the documentation is lacking in this area, it makes your concisely stated PEP rather hard to understand.

If you think a section of the doc is grossly inadequate, and there is no existing issue on the tracker, feel free to add one.

Thanks for clarifying the Windows behavior, here. A little more clarification in the PEP could have avoided lots of discussion. It would seem that a PEP, proposed to modify a poorly documented (and therefore likely poorly understood) area, should be educational about the status quo, as well as presenting the suggested change.

Where the PEP proposes to change, it should start with the status quo. But Martin's somewhat reasonable position is that since he is not proposing to change behavior on Windows, it is not his responsibility to document what he is not proposing to change more adequately. This means, of course, that any observed change on Windows would then be a bug, or at least a break of the promise. On the other hand, I can see that this is enough related to what he is proposing to change that better doc would help.

tjr

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