[Python-Dev] Maintenance burden of str.swapcase

[Michael Foord]

Hey all,

A while ago there was a discussion of the value of apis like str.swapcase, and it was suggested that even though it was acknowledged to be useless the effort of deprecating and removing it was thought to be more than the value in removing it. 

Earlier this year I was at a pypy sprint helping to work on Python 2.7 compatibility. The bytearray type has much of the string interface, including swapcase… So there was effort to implement this method with the correct semantics for pypy. Doubtless the same has been true for IronPython, and will also be true for Jython.

Whilst it is too late for Python 2.x, it *is* (in my opinion) worth removing unused and unneeded APIs. Even if the effort to remove them is more than any effort saved on the part of users it helps other implementations down the road that no longer need to provide these APIs.

All the best,

Michael Foord

-- 
http://www.voidspace.org.uk/

May you do good and not evil
May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others
May you share freely, never taking more than you give.
-- the sqlite blessing http://www.sqlite.org/different.html
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