[Python-Dev] sys.intern should work on bytes

[Victor Stinner]

2013/9/20 Jesus Cea <jcea at jcea.es>:
> """
> sys.intern(b'12121212')
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
> TypeError: must be str, not bytes
> """
>
> I wonder why.

Intern strings optimize dictionary lookup. In Python 3, most
dictionaries use str keys (ex: __dict__ of classes).

What would you be the use case of interned bytes objets?

Victor