[Python-3000] Unicode and OS strings

["Martin v. Löwis"]

> Is it too unreasonable to keep the byte strings we get from the OS as 
> byte strings in Python (since we're not sure about their encoding) and 
> offer functions for getting strings?

I think people will complain if command line arguments aren't strings,
and they will complain even more so if file names are not strings.

> Of course that's backwards incompatible and I'm not sure if it's too 
> late for something like this now.

That is not a concern. However, it is fundamentally the wrong thing to
do. Most people rightfully view command line arguments and file names
as strings, as they use the keyboard to enter them, and the computer
uses letters from a font to display them. They are not bytes
conceptually - they are strings in a potentially unknown encoding.

Regards,
Martin