[Python-ideas] Python 3.x and bytes

[Bruce Leban]

I like c'x'. It's easy to read and very explicitly constant and clear what
the value is 'x'. (Some other letter instead of 'c' would be fine as well.)

I don't like this:

> if bytesdata[i] == 121: # ord('x')

because it looks a heck of a lot like:

> if bytesdata[i] == 120: # ord('x')

and only one of those is correct. That's a very easy bug to miss. I like it
even less without the comment.

I don't care for:

> if bytesdata[i] == ord('x'):

because while ord is a builtin, it's not invulnerable to being changed. In
contrast, string constants and numbers are truly constant.

I recognize that the compiler can optimize:

> if bytesdata[i] == b'x'[0]:

but that looks like chicken scratches to me.

Someone suggested using 0'x' which I don't quite get. It looks too much like
0x to me and the I've always read the leading zero to mean 'this is a
number'.

Also, this was raised in the context of bytes and not all characters fit in
a byte. So

c'Δ'
ord('Δ')

work but

b'Δ'[0]

won't.

Is there a learning curve? Yes, but minor IMHO and if you don't know it,
it's obvious when you see it that you don't know it.

--- Bruce
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