[Python-Dev] Divorcing str and unicode (no more implicit conversions).

[Guido van Rossum]

Folks, please focus on what Python 3000 should do.

I'm thinking about making all character strings Unicode (possibly with
different internal representations a la NSString in Apple's Objective
C) and introduce a separate mutable bytes array data type. But I could
use some validation or feedback on this idea from actual
practitioners.

I don't want to see proposals to mess with the str/unicode semantics
in Python 2.x. Let' leave the Python 2.x str/unicode semantics alone
until Python 3000 -- we don't need mutliple transitions. (Although we
could add the mutable bytes array type sooner.)

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