[Python-Dev] Re: [Python-checkins] CVS: python/dist/src/Lib xmlrpclib.py,1.11,1.12

[Skip Montanaro]

    Jeremy> I meant to say "I wonder if Python should provide a generic
    Jeremy> string-to-number conversion routine that returns either an int
    Jeremy> or a long."

    SM> The XML-RPC spec also indicates that the <int> tag is restricted to
    SM> the value that can be represented by a four-byte signed integer.

    Jeremy> It sounds like such a function would not be particularly useful
    Jeremy> for XML-RPC, but I can imagine it would be useful in a world
    Jeremy> where programmers don't worry about whether they have an int or
    Jeremy> a long.

Ah, okay.  I was only looking at your note through XML-RPC-colored glasses.
I thought PEP 237 was supposed to handle the int/long unification.
Presumably, after it is fully in effect, int("9999999999999999999999999")
will just return a long, maybe not.

    Jeremy> Incidentally, it looks like the XML-RPC code won't work with
    Jeremy> subclasses of built-in types.  It's does dispatch on the type()
    Jeremy> of the object, but a subclass of string won't have type
    Jeremy> StringType.  It seems to me, though, that it should be
    Jeremy> marshallable using XML-RPC.

I filed a bug report just so this thought wouldn't get lost:

    http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=469972&group_id=5470&atid=105470

I don't know if that's a bug report or a feature request though.  Xmlrpclib
doesn't currently marshal instances of classic classes, so I'm not so sure
it should marshal instances of new-style classes either.  It's Fredrik's and
Martin's call.

Skip