[Python-Dev] Python-3.0, unicode, and os.environ

[Nick Coghlan]

Toshio Kuratomi wrote:
> Nick Coghlan wrote:
>> Toshio Kuratomi wrote:
>>> Guido van Rossum wrote:
>>>> Glob was just an example. Many use cases for directory traversal
>>>> couldn't care less if they see *all* files.
>>>>
>>> Okay.  Makes it harder to prove correct or not if I don't know what the
>>> use case is :-)  I can't think of a single use case off-hand.
>>>
>>> Even your example of a ??.txt file making retrieval of *.py files fail
>>> is a little broken.  If there was a ??.py file that was undecodable the
>>> program would most likely want to know that file existed.
>> Why? Most programs won't be able to do anything with it. And if the
>> program *can* do something with it... that's what the bytes version of
>> the APIs are for.
>>
> Nonsense.  A program can do tons of things with a non-decodable
> filename.  Where it's limited is non-decodable filedata.

You can't display a non-decodable filename to the user, hence the user
will have no idea what they're working on. Non-filesystem related apps
have no business trying to deal with insane filenames.

Linux is moving towards a standard of UTF-8 for filenames, and once we
get to the point where the idea of encoding filenames and environment
variables any other way is seen as crazy, then the Python 3 approach
will work seamlessly.

In the meantime, raw bytes APIs will provide an alternative for those
that disagree with that philosophy.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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