[Python-Dev] String methods... finally

[Guido van Rossum]

> Would this also be a good opportunity to dust-off the Unicode
> implementation the string-sig recently came up with (as implemented by
> Fredrik) and get this in as a type?
> 
> Although we still have the unresolved issue of how to use PyArg_ParseTuple
> etc to convert to/from Unicode and 8bit, it would still be nice to have
> Unicode and String objects capable of being used interchangably at the
> Python level.

Yes, yes, yes!  Even if it's not supported everywhere, at least having
the Unicode type in the source tree would definitely help!

> Of course, the big problem with attempting to test out these sorts of
> changes is that you must do so in code that will never see the public for a
> good 12 months.  I suppose a 1.5.25 is out of the question ;-)

We'll see about that...

(I sometimes wished I wasn't in the business of making releases.  I've 
asked for help with making essential patches to 1.5.2 available but
nobody volunteered... :-( )

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