PEP 305 - CSV File API

[Skip Montanaro]

    Ian> Yes it is.  CSV stands for "comma separated values" -- you must
    Ian> quote values with commas in them or it simply *will not work*.
    Ian> There is no alternative.  There is no alternative.

Well, the module is a bit more flexible than that. ;-) We use "CSV" as a
generic term, simply because it's a commonly understood acronym.  You can
specify the delimiter, quoting character, and several other features.  To
make it not too mind-boggling, parameters can be grouped together into
"dialects".  Out of the box you can tell the module to interpret CSV files as
'excel' or 'excel-tab'.  You can also define your own dialects.

I urge people to read the PEP and the nascent library reference manual
section so they know what we actually propose the module do.  The PEP is at

    http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0305.html

The raw LaTeX of the doc section is available from

    http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/python/nondist/sandbox/csv/

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