[Python-Dev] Re: PEP 277: Unicode file name support for Windows NT, was PEP-time ? ...

[M.-A. Lemburg]

"Martin v. Loewis" wrote:
> 
> > Sounds like the run-time error solution would at least "solve"
> > the issue in terms of making it depend on the used file name
> > and underlying OS or file system.
> 
> Such a solution is impossible to implement in some case. E.g. on
> Windows, if you use the ANSI (*A) APIs to list the directory contents,
> Windows will *silently* (AFAIK) give you incorrect file names, i.e. it
> will replace unrepresentable characters with the replacement char
> (QUESTION MARK).

Samba does the same for mounted Windows shares, BTW.
 
> OTOH, on Unix, there is a better approach for listdir and
> unconvertable names: just return the byte strings to the user.

Sigh.
 
> > I'd say: let the different file name based APIs try hard enough
> > and then have them bail out if they can't handle the particular
> > case.
> 
> That is a good idea. However, in case of the WinNT replacement
> strategy, the application may still want to know.
> 
> Passing *in* Unicode objects is no issue at all: If they cannot be
> converted to a reasonable file name, you clearly get an exception.

True and that's good :-)
 
-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH
______________________________________________________________________
Company & Consulting:                           http://www.egenix.com/
Python Software:                   http://www.egenix.com/files/python/