"Brett Cannon" <brett at python.org> wrote: > I don't remember the whole bytes discussion in terms of encoding and > decoding. Check "the bytes type" summary and threads here: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-April/063588.html Also check the "encode and decode interface in Python 3.0" summary and threads here: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-April/063605.html The three options were more or less: 1) remove bytes.encode and text.decode 2) change the exceptions messages to be more informative 3) do nothing No one particularly liked #3, #2 could be done today and be usable in both 2.6 and 3.0 . Marc-Andre Lemburg was (at the time) in favor of #2, where Guido preferred #1 (at least in the messages I've re-read). I personally prefer #2, as it allows for the most flexibility. - Josiah