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

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Paul Prescod wrote:
> 
> Tim Peters wrote:
> >
> > [Paul Prescod]
> > > 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.
> >
> > C already addresses that distinction ("r" vs "rb" open modes).
> 
> Python is documented as only using the distinction to handle line ends.
> We want to create totally different object types based on the flag.

Two things:

1. the difference between "r" and "rb" only exists on some non-Unix
   platforms (e.g. Windows)

2. the codec decides which type of object to return for .read()
   -- this has nothing to do with the file mode, but instead is
   dependent on the encoding used, e.g. encoding='binary' would
   return a binary string, encoding='ascii' results in Unicode
   and encoding='pil-image' could produce a PIL image object...

Paul, you ought to write up a PEP about this subject discussing
all the different issues with adding more optional parameters
(encoding and errors, possibly more) to open().

It should also include a discussion about the
implications using an encoding would have w/r to the applications
relying on getting a real file object from the builtin open().

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
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