[Python-Dev] Silent Deprecation Candidate -- buffer()

[Tim Peters]

Guido's last eassy on the buffer interface is still worth reading:

    http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2000-October/009974.html

No progress on the issues discussed has been made since, and, to the
contrary, recent changes go in directions Guido didn't want to go.

Note that he was in favor of both gutting and deprecating the buffer object
(as distinct from the buffer C API) "way back then" already.  The only time
I ever see buffer() used in Python code is in examples of how to crash
Python <wink>.

In practice, the positive way to look at it is that we've been following
Finn Bock's advice with passion:

    Because it is so difficult to look at java storage as a sequence of
    bytes, I think I'm all for keeping the buffer() builtin and buffer
    object as obscure and unknown as possible <wink>.