[Python-Dev] PEP 246: lossless and stateless

[Phillip J. Eby]

At 09:47 AM 1/14/05 +0000, Armin Rigo wrote:
>For example, strings "mean" very
>different concepts in various contexts, e.g. a file name, an url, the byte
>content a document, or the pickled representation of something.

Note that this is solvable in practice by the author of a method or 
framework choosing to define an interface that they accept, and then 
pre-defining the adaptation from string to that interface.  So, what a 
string "means" in that context is pre-defined.

The interpretation problem for strings comes only when a third party 
attempts to define adaptation from a string to a context that takes some 
more generic interface.


>This would allow a module to provide the str->StringIO or str->file conversion
>locally.

It also works for the module to define a target interface and register an 
adapter to that, and introduces less complexity into the adaptation system.