"Gareth" == Gareth McCaughan <gmccaughan@synaptics-uk.com> writes:
Gareth> I am unconvinced that "the vast majority of developers" Gareth> will not have work to do that involves a large volume of Gareth> ASCII data ... but I'm not sure this is something either Gareth> of us is in a position to know. Oh, I'm pretty sure that an awful lot of developers _will_ have work to do that involves large volumes of ASCII data. The question is how much will that work be facilitated by having all (as opposed to a few well-chosen) text processing features support returning 8-bit strings as well as Unicodes? Gareth> Perhaps I'm being obtuse, but it's far from clear to me Gareth> that this is a net loss for Python users at large. It's not clear to me, either. I am just not convinced by hand-waving that says "there's no difference between human text processing and other text processing, so any text processing facility should be available in an 8-bit version." Maybe that's a straw man, but that's what </F> was advocating AFAICT. Gareth> I still think, though, that a "notice" standard makes for Gareth> bad designs. We're not talking about design here, IMO. We're talking about requirements. Of course if you're going to implement a capability, you should design it "right." Gareth> What people notice is easier to define and to measure than Gareth> what actually makes a difference to them. That is not Gareth> enough reason to treat it as the only criterion. It's not. What I'm saying is that if very few people see a noticable difference, it should be left up to those few to implement what they need. -- Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp University of Tsukuba Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN Ask not how you can "do" free software business; ask what your business can "do for" free software.