[Python-Dev] Why can't I encode/decode base64 without importing a module?

[Guido van Rossum]

--Guido van Rossum (sent from Android phone)
On Apr 22, 2013 6:09 PM, "R. David Murray" <rdmurray at bitdance.com> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:16:20 +1200, Greg Ewing <
greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
> > Victor Stinner wrote:
> > > The last proposition is to add transform() and untransform() methods
> > > to bytes and str types. ... If I remember
> > > correctly, the missing point is how to define which types are
> > > supported by a codec
> >
> > Also, for any given codec, which direction is "transform"
> > and which is "untransform"?
>
> You transform *into* the encoding, and untransform *out* of the encoding.
> Do you have an example where that would be ambiguous?
>
> > Also also, what's so special about base64 et al that they
> > deserve an ultra-special way of invoking them, instead of
> > having to import a class or function like you do for
> > *every* *other* piece of library functionality?
>
> You can ask the same question about all the other codecs.  (And that
> question has indeed been asked in the past.)

Except for rot13. :-)

> (One answer is that they used to work in Python2...but the longer we go
> without restoring the functionality to Python3, the weaker that particular
> argument becomes.)
>
> --David
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