Greg Ewing writes: > The reason you use a text format in the first place is that > you have some way of transmitting text, and you want to > send something that isn't text. In that situation, the > encoding is already determined by whatever means you're > using to send the text.
Determined, yes, but all too often in a nondeterministic way. That's precisely the problem that the spec is trying to avert. People often schlep "text" around as if that were well-defined, forcing receivers to guess what is meant. Having a spec isn't going to stop them, but at least you can lash them with a wet noodle. The specification of at least the abstract character repertoire and coded character set also allows implementers like Python to proceed confidently with their usual internal encoding. _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
