[I18n-sig] Modified open() builtin (Re: Python Character Model)

[Paul Prescod]

Tim Peters wrote:
> 
> [Barry A. Warsaw]
> > ...
> > Requiring the encoding imposes too much burden on the newbie learning
> > the language, IMHO.
> 
> Indeed it does, no matter how strongly an advocate may believe users
> "should" be aware of i18n issues.

It has nothing to do with awareness of il8n issues. The fundamental
question is whether you expect to get text back from a read() or binary.
If you open with ASCII you get text coercions, text conversions and
other text semantics. If you open with binary you don't.

I do not think it too much to ask for people to know the difference
between text and binary data!

 Paul Prescod