python tutorial

[steve]

"Robert Kern" <robert.kern at gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:mailman.1728.1245289092.8015.python-list at python.org...
> On 2009-06-17 19:36, steve wrote:
>>> "Carl Banks"<pavlovevidence at gmail.com>  wrote in message
>>> news:2f6271b1-5ffa-4cec-81f8->>0276ad647026 at p5g2000pre.googlegroups.com...
>>> On Jun 15, 7:56 pm, "steve"<st... at nospam.au>  wrote:
>>>> I was just looking at the python tutorial, and I noticed these lines:
>>>>
>>>> http://docs.python.org/tutorial/inputoutput.html#reading-and-writing-...
>>>>
>>>> "Windows makes a distinction between text and binary files;
>>>> "the end-of-line characters in text files are automatically altered
>>>> "slightly when data is read or written.
>>>>
>>>> I don't see any obvious way to at docs.python.org to get that 
>>>> corrected:
>>>> Is
>>>> there some standard procedure?
>>> What's wrong with it?
>>>
>>>
>>> Carl Banks
>>
>> 1) Windows does not make a distinction between text and binary files.
>>
>> 2) end-of-line characters in text files are not automatically altered by
>> Windows.
>
> The Windows implementation of the C standard makes the distinction. E.g. 
> using stdio to write out "foo\nbar\n" in a file opened in text mode will 
> result in "foo\r\nbar\r\n" in the file. Reading such a file in text mode 
> will result in "foo\nbar\n" in memory. Reading such a file in binary mode 
> will result in "foo\r\nbar\r\n". In your bug report, you point out several 
> proprietary APIs that do not make such a distinction, but that does not 
> remove the implementations of the standard APIs that do make such a 
> distinction.
>
>   http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yeby3zcb.aspx
>
> Perhaps it's a bit dodgy to blame "Windows" per se rather than its C 
> runtime, but I think it's a reasonable statement on the whole.
>
> -- 
> Robert Kern
>
> "I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless 
> enigma
>  that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it 
> had
>  an underlying truth."
>   -- Umberto Eco
>


Which is where I came in: I was looking for simple file IO in the tutorial. 
The tutorial tells me something false about Windows, rather than something 
true about Python.

I'm looking at a statement that is clearly false (for anyone who knows 
anything about Windows file systems and Windows file io), which leaves the 
Python behaviour completely undefined (for anyone who knows nothing about 
Python).

I understand that many of you don't really have any understanding of 
Windows, much less any background with Windows, and I'm here to help.  That 
part was simple.

The next part is where I can't help: What is the behaviour of Python?

I'm sure you don't think that tutorial is only for readers who can guess 
that they have to extrapolate from the behaviour of the Visual C library in 
order to work out what Python does.


Steve