[Python-Dev] unicode_string future, str -> basestring, fix or feature (original) (raw)

Nick Coghlan ncoghlan at gmail.com
Mon Mar 3 03:09:26 CET 2014

On 3 March 2014 10:02, Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:

On 3/2/2014 4:23 PM, Serhiy Storchaka wrote:

02.03.14 22:01, Terry Reedy написав(ла):

Is this a programmer error for passing unicode instead of string, or a library error for not accepting unicode? Is changing 'isinstance(x, str)' in the library (with whatever other changes are needed) a bugfix to be pushed or a prohibited API expansion? Patches which add support for unicode strings were accepted for one issues (e.g. http://bugs.python.org/issue19099) and rejected for other issues (e.g. http://bugs.python.org/issue20014 and http://bugs.python.org/issue20015). Some issues (e.g. http://bugs.python.org/issue18695) hang in undefined state. If Antoine and Guido don't reverse themselves, those could perhaps be re-opened. It strikes me as borderline, depending interpretation of 'string'. I am not surprised there have been different resolutions.

It occurs to me that it would be good to have a "bug fix or feature?" section in the developer guide to provide a more permanent record of dicussions like this. That would also be the place to document tricks like defining a private API to fix a bug in a maintenance release, and then potentially making that new API public for the next feature release if it's potentially useful to end users.

Cheers, Nick.

-- Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan at gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia

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