[Python-Dev] Strings: '\012' -> '\n'

[Tim Peters]

[Eric]
> Tim, on the level of aesthetic preference I'm totally with you.
> I've always found octal really ugly myself.  Hex fits my brain
> better;  somehow I find it easier to visualize the bit patterns from.
>
> Sadly, there are so many other related ways in which Python
> intelligently follows C/Unix conventions that I think changing to
> a default of hex escapes rather than octal would violate the Rule
> of Least Surprise.
>
> ... [and skipping nice stuff I *do* agree with <wink>] ...

The saving grace here is that repr() is a form of ASCII dump.  C has nothing
to say about that, while last time I used Unix it was real easy to get dumps
in hex (and indeed that's what everyone I knew routinely did).  I expect
that od retains both its name and its octal defaults on most systems simply
due to inertia.  An octal dump would be infinitely surprising on Windows
(I'm not sure I can even get one without writing it myself).

Do people actually use octal dumps on Unices anymore?  I'd be surprised, if
they're running on power-of-2 boxes.  Defaults aren't conventions when
*everyone* overrides them, they're just old and in the way.

takes-one-to-know-one<wink>-ly y'rs  - tim