[Python-Dev] tempfile.py

[Guido van Rossum]

> guido wrote:
> > The mkstemp() function in the rewritten tempfile has an argument with
> > a curious name and default: binary=True.  This caused confusion (even
> > the docstring in the original patch was confused :-).  It would be
> > much easier to explain if this was changed to text=False.
> 
> fwiw, it would probably be even easier to use/explain if it
> used a mode string.

The [Named]TemporaryFile() functions do that.  mkstemp() returns a
OS-level file desccriptor.  I guess the 'binary' flag is coming from
Windows thinking, where you have to add os.O_BINARY to the open()
flags for binary mode.

I'll change mkstemp() to having a text=False argument instead.

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