[Python-3000] need help fixing broken tests in py3k-pep3137 branch

[Guido van Rossum]

On 11/5/07, Bill Janssen <janssen at parc.com> wrote:
> > > > 3. the ABC corresponding to buffer-API objects: MemoryBlock
> > >
> > > What do you think about RawData, RawBlock, RawView or RawSequence? From
> > > my point of view a PyBuffer allows me to access the raw data of a
> > > PyString or PyBytes.
> >
> > "Raw" has lots of different connotations (e.g. raw_input() in 2.x). I
> > like "Memory" best since it indicates directly that it's connected to
> > the computer's (primary) memory.
>
> How about ByteBlock?  I like the "Block" part.

Me too, but the alliteration of ByteBlock somehow rubs me the wrong way.

> Two points:  Every other type of data structure is connected to the the
> "memory" in the same way, strings no less than buffers.  And it (and all
> the other data types) are not really connected to the computer's
> primary memory these days; virtual at best.  It's the bytes which are
> the interesting piece of info here; they should be in the name.

But the *Block type is different because its primary use is to share
that memory / those bytes with code that lives at the C level. In
favor of "memory" is also that Travis Oliphant independently came up
with "memoryview" for the data type that makes the buffer API
accessible from Python.

BTW a separate issue is that there currently is no way for a class
defined in Python to implement PyObject_GetBuffer, other than
inheriting from an object that already implements it. There should be
a possible wrapper so that you can wrap around e.g. a bytes object.
This is really an issue for PEP 3118 though.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)