[Python-Dev] Why does base64 return bytes? (original) (raw)

Mark Lawrence breamoreboy at yahoo.co.uk
Tue Jun 14 12:29:12 EDT 2016

On 14/06/2016 16:51, Paul Moore wrote:

On 14 June 2016 at 16:19, Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> wrote:

Why does base64 encoding in Python return bytes? I seem to recall there was a debate about this around the time of the Python 3 move. (IIRC, it was related to the fact that there used to be a base64 "codec", that wasn't available in Python 3 because it wasn't clear whether it converted bytes to text or bytes). I don't remember any of the details, let alone if a conclusion was reached, but a search of the archives may find something. Paul

As I've the time to play detective I'd suggest https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-3000/2007-July/008975.html

-- My fellow Pythonistas, ask not what our language can do for you, ask what you can do for our language.

Mark Lawrence

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