[Python-Dev] Why can't I encode/decode base64 without importing a module? (original) (raw)

Barry Warsaw barry at python.org
Tue Apr 23 17:07:25 CEST 2013


On Apr 22, 2013, at 10:30 PM, Donald Stufft wrote:

I may be dull, but it wasn't until I started using Python 3 that it really clicked in my head what encode/decode did exactly. In Python2 I just sort of sprinkled one or the other when there was errors until the pain stopped. I mostly attribute this to str.decode and bytes.encode not existing.

This is a key observation. It's also now much easier to explain what's going on and recommend correct code in Python 3, so overall it's a win.

That's not to downplay the inconvenience of not being able to easily do bytes->bytes or str->str transformations as easily as was possible in Python 2. I've not thought about it much, but placing those types of transformations on a different set of functions (methods or builtins) seems like the right direction. IOW, don't mess with encode/decode.

-Barry -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 836 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/attachments/20130423/c7d4be10/attachment.pgp>



More information about the Python-Dev mailing list