Generalised String Coercion

[John Roth]

"Terry Reedy" <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote in message 
news:mailman.2787.1123360927.10512.python-list at python.org...
>> PEP: 349
>> Title: Generalised String Coercion
> ...
>> Rationale
>>    Python has had a Unicode string type for some time now but use of
>>    it is not yet widespread.  There is a large amount of Python code
>>    that assumes that string data is represented as str instances.
>>    The long term plan for Python is to phase out the str type and use
>>    unicode for all string data.
>
> This PEP strikes me as premature, as putting the toy wagon before the 
> horse, since it is premised on a major change to Python, possibly the most 
> disruptive and controversial ever, being a done deal.  However there is, 
> as far as I could find no PEP on Making Strings be Unicode, let alone a 
> discussed, debated, and finalized PEP on the subject.

PEP 3000, Core Language, Bullet Point 3:

Make all strings be Unicode, and have a separate bytes() type.

John Roth

> Terry J. Reedy