[Python-Dev] [python] Re: New lines, carriage returns, and Windows

[Bill Janssen]

> Well, it's an OS level difference and I thought that in general Python 
> *doesn't* try to protect you from OS differences.

I think that's the key point.  In general, Python tries to present a
"translucent" interface to the OS in which OS differences can show
through, in contrast to other languages (Java?) which try to present a
complete abstraction of the underlying environment.  This makes Python
in general more useful, thought it also makes it harder to write
portable code in Python, because you have to be aware of the potential
differences (and they aren't particularly well documented -- it's not
clear that they can be).

Bill