[Python-Dev] bytes.from_hex()

[Aahz]

On Sat, Feb 18, 2006, Ron Adam wrote:
>
> I like the bytes.recode() idea a lot. +1
> 
> It seems to me it's a far more useful idea than encoding and decoding by 
> overloading and could do both and more.  It has a lot of potential to be 
> an intermediate step for encoding as well as being used for many other 
> translations to byte data.
> 
> I think I would prefer that encode and decode be just functions with 
> well defined names and arguments instead of being methods or arguments 
> to string and Unicode types.
> 
> I'm not sure on exactly how this would work. Maybe it would need two 
> sets of encodings, ie.. decoders, and encoders.  An exception would be
> given if it wasn't found for the direction one was going in.

Here's an idea I don't think I've seen before:

bytes.recode(b, src_encoding, dest_encoding)

This requires the user to state up-front what the source encoding is.
One of the big problems that I see with the whole encoding mess is that
so much of it contains implicit assumptions about the source encoding;
this gets away from that.
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"19. A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming,
is not worth knowing."  --Alan Perlis