[Python-ideas] String and bytes bitwise operations

[Chris Barker]

On Sat, May 19, 2018 at 6:52 AM, Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info>
wrote:

> Philosophical arguments about the nature of computer memory aside, byte
> objects in Python are collections of ints.
>

not when you start talking about bit-wise operations :-)

If a "byte" in python was an integer, then we'd use b**2 rather than b << 1

(yes, I know bit shifting can be more efficient, but I don't think that's
why it's there in python)

The entire point of bitwise operators is so that the bits themselves can be
accessed and manipulated.


> If you want those ints to represent something else, you're responsible
> for handling that (say, using the struct module).


yup -- with struct, and, hmm, maybe bitwise operators?

Anyway, as you say, this is a Philosophical (or semantic) point -- I don't
think it effects the discussion at hand.

However, when you talk about bit-shifting a bytes object, you do need to
decide if each byte is handled individually, or if they are one big
collection.

-CHB


-- 

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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