[Python-Dev] Re: adding a bytes sequence type to Python

[Paul Prescod]

M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
>...
> 
> 
> We already have a number of read-write types for storing binary
> data, e.g. arrays, cStringIO and buffers. Inventing yet another
> way to spell binary data won't make life easier.

The point is canonicalize one and start to make APIs that expect it. 
Otherwise we will never make the leap from the bad habit of using 
strings as byte arrays. Can you pass arrays to the write() function? Can 
you decode buffers to strings? A byte array type would have a certain 
mix of functions and API compatibility that is missing from the plethora 
of similar thingees.

  Paul Prescod