[Python-Dev] RFC: PEP 460: Add bytes % args and bytes.format(args) to Python 3.5 (original) (raw)

Antoine Pitrou solipsis at pitrou.net
Mon Jan 6 14:59:07 CET 2014

On Tue, 7 Jan 2014 00:54:17 +1100 Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:

On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 12:44 AM, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote: > BTW, there's a subtlety here: %s currently means "insert the result > of calling str", but bytes formatting should not call str.

Since it derives from the C printf notation, it means "insert string here". The fact that str will be called is secondary to that. I would say it's not a problem for bytes formatting to call bytes, or in some other way convert to bytes without calling str. Will it be confusing to have bytes and str supporting distinctly different format operations? Might it be better to instead create a separate and very different method on a bytes, just to emphasize the difference?

The people who want bytes formatting, AFAICT, want something that is reasonably 2.x-compatible. That means using the same method / operator and calling conventions.

Regards

Antoine.

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