[Python-Dev] file() or open()?

[Aahz]

On Sat, Jul 10, 2004, Terry Reedy wrote:
>
> In a previous post, Guido justified 'open' on the basis that
> applications 'open' 'files'.  However, in every such application I
> can think of at the moment, 'open' means 'read the data and convert
> it to one of the application's internal native formats, even if it
> was written in a different format by another application.  In other
> words, app.open(path) == file(path).read().convert(filetype(path)).
> Conversely, one never opens a file before saveing a fresh new
> document; one just saves-as.  So Python's open() is quite different
> from the app usage of 'open'.

On the gripping hand, just about every programming language in the Algol
family uses ``open()``.  And yes, I'm specifically including C/C++ and
Perl.
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"Typing is cheap.  Thinking is expensive."  --Roy Smith, c.l.py