[Python-ideas] Adding 'bytes' as alias for 'latin_1' codec.

[Terry Reedy]

On 5/26/2011 7:17 AM, Masklinn wrote:
> Considering the original use case,

to prefix ascii-encoded numbers to lines in an unknown but 
ascii-compatible encoding*,
and considering the responses since my last post, I have changed from -0 
to -1 to the alias proposal.

1. The use case does not need the fake decoding and is better off 
without it.
2. I suspect the uses cases where fake decoding is both needed and 
sufficient are relatively rare.
3. Fake decoding is dangerous (Lemburg).
4. People who know enough to use it safely should already know about how 
latin-1 relates to unicode, and therefore do not need an alias.
5. Other people should not be encouraged to use it as a fake.

*I meant to ask earlier whether there are ascii-incompatible encodings 
for which the original code and my revision would not work. I gather 
from the responses that yes, there are some.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy