[Python-Dev] unicode_string future, str -> basestring, fix or feature

[Nick Coghlan]

On 3 March 2014 10:02, Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:
> On 3/2/2014 4:23 PM, Serhiy Storchaka wrote:
>>
>> 02.03.14 22:01, Terry Reedy написав(ла):
>>>
>>> Is this a programmer error for passing unicode instead of string, or a
>>> library error for not accepting unicode?
>>> Is changing 'isinstance(x, str)' in the library (with whatever other
>>> changes are needed) a bugfix to be pushed or a prohibited API expansion?
>>
>>
>> Patches which add support for unicode strings were accepted for one
>> issues (e.g. http://bugs.python.org/issue19099) and rejected for other
>> issues (e.g. http://bugs.python.org/issue20014 and
>> http://bugs.python.org/issue20015). Some issues (e.g.
>> http://bugs.python.org/issue18695) hang in undefined state.
>
>
> If Antoine and Guido don't reverse themselves, those could perhaps be
> re-opened. It strikes me as borderline, depending interpretation of
> 'string'. I am not surprised there have been different resolutions.

It occurs to me that it would be good to have a "bug fix or feature?"
section in the developer guide to provide a more permanent record of
dicussions like this. That would also be the place to document tricks
like defining a private API to fix a bug in a maintenance release, and
then potentially making that new API public for the next feature
release if it's potentially useful to end users.

Cheers,
Nick.

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