[Python-3000] base64 - bytes and strings

[James Y Knight]

On Jul 30, 2007, at 1:24 PM, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> I think you're missing the point, the point being that the most common
> use needs bytes, so returning bytes is the most useful API design.

I'd say that encoding binary data in XML is at least in the running  
for most common use of base64. And for that use case, you'll need it  
as a text string, I think?

James