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

Paul Sokolovsky pmiscml at gmail.com
Tue Jun 14 14:25:48 EDT 2016


Hello,

On Tue, 14 Jun 2016 18:13:11 +0000 Daniel Holth <dholth at gmail.com> wrote:

IMO this is more a philosophical problem than a programming problem. base64 has a dual-nature. It is both text and bytes. At least it should fit in a 1-byte-per-character efficient Python 3 unicode string also.

You probably mean "CPython3 1-byte-per-character "efficient" string". But CPython3 is merely one of half-dozen Python3 language implementations. Yup, a special one, but hopefully it's special in a respect that it doesn't abuse its powers to make language API changes based on its own implementation details. API changes, because API decisions have been done long ago already.

-- Best regards, Paul mailto:pmiscml at gmail.com



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