[Python-Dev] Draft PEP: Deprecate codecs.StreamReader and codecs.StreamWriter

[Nick Coghlan]

On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 1:51 PM, Benjamin Peterson <benjamin at python.org> wrote:
> 2011/7/6 Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com>:
>> On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 11:16 AM, Benjamin Peterson <benjamin at python.org> wrote:
>>> 2011/7/6 Victor Stinner <victor.stinner at haypocalc.com>:
>>>> codecs.open() will be changed to reuse the builtin open() function
>>>> (TextIOWrapper).
>>>
>>> This doesn't strike me as particularly backwards compatible, since
>>> you've just enumerated the differences between StreamWriter/Reader and
>>> TextIOWrapper.
>>
>> The API of the resulting object is the same (i.e. they're file-like
>> objects). The behavioural differences are due to cases where the
>> codec-specific classes are currently broken.
>
> Yes, but as we all know too well, people are surely relying on
> whatever behavior there is, broken or not.

True, but that's why changes like this are always a judgement call -
is the gain in correctness worth the risk of breakage? We sometimes
break workarounds when we fix bugs, too. From the discussion last time
around, that particular change wasn't very controversial, which is why
it is already in the 3.3 development tree.

Unless somebody steps forward to fix them, the Stream* classes have to
go (albeit with a suitable period of deprecation). They're *actively
harmful* in their current state, so retaining the status quo is not a
viable option in this case.

Cheers,
Nick.

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