[Python-Dev] Re: Alternative Implementation for PEP292:SimpleString Substitutions

[Guido van Rossum]

> > Only in Python 3.0.
> 
> We better start early to ever reach the point of making
> a clear distinction between text and binary data in P3k.

The introduction of a bytes type in Python 2.5 should be a good start.

> > But even so, deriving from Unicode (or str) means the template class
> > inherits a lot of unwanted operations. While I can see that
> > concatenating templates probably works, slicing them or converting to
> > lowercase etc. make no sense. IMO the standard Template class should
> > implement a "narrow" interface, i.e. *only* the template expansion
> > method (__mod__ or something else), so it's clear that other
> > compatible template classes shouldn't have to implement anything
> > besides that. This avoids the issues we have with the mapping
> > protocol: when does an object implement enough of the mapping API to
> > be usable? That's currently ill-defined; sometimes, __getitem__ is all
> > you need, sometimes __contains__ is required, sometimes keys, rarely
> > setdefault.
> 
> Looks like it's ont even clear what templating itself should
> mean... you're talking about a templating interface here, not an
> object type, like Barry is (for the sake of making Templates compatible
> to i18n tools like gettext).

I don't know zip about i18n or gettext.

But I thought we had plenty of time since Barry has offered to
withdraw the PEP 292 implementation for 2.4?


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