For some time now, I've wanted to suggest a better abstraction for the <file> type in Python. It currently uses an antiquated, low-level C-style interface for moving around in a file, with methods like tell() and seek(). But after attributes were introduced to Python, it seems like it should be re-evaluated. Let file-type have an attribute .pos for position. Now you can get rid of the seek() and tell() methods and manipulate the file pointer by the more standard and familiar arithmetic operations:
file.pos = x0ae1 #move file pointer to an absolute address file.pos += 1 #increment the file pointer one byte curr_pos = file.pos #read current file pointer
You've now simplified the API by the removal of two obscure legacy methods (where one has to learn the additional concept of "absolute" and "relative" addressing) and replaced them with a more basic one called "position". Thoughts? markj