Printing strings with null-bytes in Pythonwin?

[Dinu C. Gherman]

Is is possible that Pythonwin has a problem with strings 
containing null-bytes? Or is the behaviour below to be 
expected as one cannot display null bytes in any meaning-
ful way, so to say? 

If I run the following code from a script:

str = ['\000'] * 4
# str = ['a'] * 4
print `str`
from string import join
print join(str, '')

I get this traceback, pointing to a file winout.py which 
does not seem to mention any problems with null-bytes:

"""
Traceback (innermost last):
  File "C:\Program
Files\Python\Pythonwin\pywin\framework\scriptutils.py", line 237, in
RunScript
    exec codeObject in __main__.__dict__
  File "C:\Usr\gherman\Misc\nullbytes.py", line 5, in ?
    print join(str, '')
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\Pythonwin\pywin\framework\winout.py",
line 207, in write
    return self.template.write(msg)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\Pythonwin\pywin\framework\winout.py",
line 396, in write
    self.HandleOutput(message)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\Pythonwin\pywin\framework\winout.py",
line 381, in HandleOutput
    return self.QueueFlush()
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\Pythonwin\pywin\framework\winout.py",
line 364, in QueueFlush
    self.currentView.ReplaceSel(self.outputQueue.get_nowait())
TypeError: ReplaceSel, argument 1: expected string without null bytes,
string found
"""

If you write the same in an interactive Pythonwin window 
you'll get the following, indicating that the problem only 
occurs when you actually try to print the string containing 
null-bytes:

>>> str = ['\000'] * 4
>>> print `str`
['\000', '\000', '\000', '\000']
>>> from string import join
>>> join(str, '')
'\000\000\000\000'
>>> print join(str, '')


Traceback (innermost last):
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\Pythonwin\pywin\framework\interact.py",
line 372, in keyhandler_enter
    self.DrawPrompt()
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\Pythonwin\pywin\framework\interact.py",
line 120, in DrawPrompt
    self.flush()
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\Pythonwin\pywin\framework\winout.py",
line 212, in flush
    return self.template.flush()
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\Pythonwin\pywin\framework\winout.py",
line 399, in flush
    self.QueueFlush()
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\Pythonwin\pywin\framework\winout.py",
line 364, in QueueFlush
    self.currentView.ReplaceSel(self.outputQueue.get_nowait())
TypeError: ReplaceSel, argument 1: expected string without null bytes,
string found
>>>

If the reasoning at the beginning is the official one (null-
bytes cannot be displayed anyway), it's interesting to note 
the difference to a Python interpreter running on  Linux, 
where you get as boring a result as can be expected, but at 
least it does not fail:

>>> str = ['\000'] * 4
>>> print `str`
['\000', '\000', '\000', '\000']
>>> from string import join
>>> join(str, '')
'\000\000\000\000'
>>> print join(str, '')

>>>

Just curious,

Dinu

-- 
Dinu C. Gherman

................................................................
"An average of more than 15 % of adults in 12 industrialized 
countries are functionally illiterate; in Ireland, the United 
Kingdom and the United States, the rates are over 20 %."

  (The State of the World's Children 1999,
   UNICEF, http://www.unicef.org/sowc99)