[IPython-dev] IPython and unicode (planning ahead for Py3k)

[Brian Granger]

Here is a much more complete description of the unicode issues related to
the python 2->3 transition.

http://docs.python.org/dev/3.0/howto/unicode.html#unicode-howto

Cheers,

Brian

On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 4:29 PM, Brian Granger <ellisonbg.net at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am running into an issue with paths and unicode strings in IPython.
> Currently, in 99% of IPython's code base
> we use str for *everything*.  But, there are a few things that are unicode
> (get_ipython_dir, get_home_dir, some others).
> The inconsistency is giving me some trouble and I need to decide if I
> should be using str or unicode for files, paths, dirs.
>
> So, I would like us to come up with a more consistent plan for
> unicode/str.  This is especially relevant for the Python 3.0
> transition, where the str type goes away (only unicode and bytes).
>
> Here is what I am thinking:
>
> * Sometimes soon, we begin to do the transition from str-> unicode.
> Basically, 99% of strings in IPython should be unicode.  That is
> everything that is not a path, file, directory, etc.
>
> * Starting now, every path, filename, etc should be unicode?  I am not as
> sure about this one...
> The Python 3 docs here:
>
> http://docs.python.org/3.1/library/os.path.html
>
> say the most general thing is to use bytes on unix/linux/os x and unicode
> on Windows for paths,
> files, dirs.  That seems like a huge pain though and would mean we have to
> provide some sort
> of abstraction layer for these things.  It would be so nice to simply use
> unicode everywhere.
> But, that means there are some paths that we can't represent on unix.
>
> Does anyone have experience with Python 3.0 in this regard yet?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Brian
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/ipython-dev/attachments/20091111/6708e6a9/attachment.html>