[Python-Dev] Why does base64 return bytes? (original) (raw)
Random832 random832 at fastmail.com
Wed Jun 15 00:29:06 EDT 2016
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On Tue, Jun 14, 2016, at 22:58, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
The RFC is unclear on this point, but I read it as specifying the ASCII coded character set, not the ASCII repertoire of (abstract) characters. Therefore, it specifies an invertible mapping from a particular set of integers to characters.
There are multiple descriptions of base 64 that specifically mention using it with EBCDIC and with local character sets of unspecified nature.
> The intention is clearly to represent binary data as text.
It's more subtle than that. RFCs do not deal with text. Text is an internal concept of (some) programming environments.
It's also a human concept. Plenty of RFCs deal with human concept rather than purely programming topics.
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