[Python-ideas] file API

Jim Jewett jimjjewett at gmail.com
Thu Sep 27 21:40:27 CEST 2012


On 9/24/12, Mark Adam <dreamingforward at gmail.com> wrote:
> For some time now, I've wanted to suggest a better abstraction for the
> <file> type in Python.  It currently uses an antiquated, low-level
> C-style interface for moving around in a file, with methods like
> tell() and seek().

I agree, but I'm not sure the improvement can be *enough* of an
improvement to justify the cost of change.

>>>> file.pos = x0ae1       #move file pointer to an absolute address
>>>> file.pos += 1             #increment the file pointer one byte

For text files, I would expect it to be a character count rather than
a byte count.  So this particular proposal might end up adding as much
confusion as it hopes to remove.

-jJ



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