[Numpy-discussion] Bytes vs. Unicode in Python3

[Francesc Alted]

A Friday 27 November 2009 15:09:00 René Dudfield escrigué:
> On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 1:49 PM, Francesc Alted <faltet at pytables.org> wrote:
> > Correct.  But, in addition, we are going to need a new 'bytes' dtype for
> > NumPy for Python 3, right?
> 
> I think so.  However, I think S is probably closest to bytes... and
> maybe S can be reused for bytes... I'm not sure though.

That could be a good idea because that would ensure compatibility with 
existing NumPy scripts (i.e. old 'string' dtypes are mapped to 'bytes', as it 
should).  The only thing that I don't like is that that 'S' seems to be the 
initial letter for 'string', which is actually 'unicode' in Python 3 :-/
But, for the sake of compatibility, we can probably live with that.

> Also, what will a bytes dtype mean within a py2 program context?  Does
> it matter if the bytes dtype just fails somehow if used in a py2
> program?

Mmh, I'm of the opinion that the new 'bytes' type should be available only 
with NumPy for Python 3.  Would that be possible?

-- 
Francesc Alted