[Python-Dev] transitioning from % to {} formatting

[Steven Bethard]

There's a lot of code already out there (in the standard library and
other places) that uses %-style formatting, when in Python 3.0 we
should be encouraging {}-style formatting. We should really provide
some sort of transition plan. Consider an example from the logging
docs:

logging.Formatter("%(asctime)s - %(name)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s")

We'd like to support both this style as well as the following style:

logging.Formatter("{asctime} - {name} - {levelname} - {message}")

Perhaps we'd eventually deprecate the %-style formatting, but at least
in the intervening time, we'd have to support both. I see a few
possibilities:

* Add a new class, NewFormatter, which uses the {}-style formatting.
This is ugly because it makes the formatting we're trying to encourage
look like the alternative implementation instead of the standard one.
It also means we have to come up with new names for every API that
uses format strings.

* Have Formatter try to guess whether it got %-style formatting or
{}-style formatting, and then delegate to the appropriate one. I don't
know how accurately we can guess. We also end up still relying on both
formatting styles under the hood.

* Have Formatter convert all %-style formatting strings to {}-style
formatting strings (automatically). This still involves some guessing,
and involves some serious hacking to translate from one to the other
(maybe it wouldn't even always be possible?). But at least we'd only
be using {}-style formatting under the hood.

Thoughts?

Steve
-- 
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