[Python-ideas] os.path.isbinary

[Eli Bendersky]

On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 8:40 AM, Ryan <rymg19 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Here's something more interesting than my shlex idea.
>
> os.path is, pretty much, the Python FS toolbox, along with shutil. But,
> there's one feature missing: check if a file is binary. It isn't hard, see
> http://code.activestate.com/recipes/173220/. But, writing 50 lines of
> code for a more common task isn't really Python-ish.
>
> So...
>
> What if os.path had a binary checker that works just like isfile:
> os.path.isbinary('/nothingness/is/eternal') # Returns boolean
>


Some time ago I put on a gas mask and dove into the Perl source code to
figure out how its "is binary" and "is text" operators work:
http://eli.thegreenplace.net/2011/10/19/perls-guess-if-file-is-text-or-binary-implemented-in-python/

I would recommend against including such a simplistic heuristic in the
Python stdlib.

Eli
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