[Python-Dev] Please review PEP 278 - Universal newline support

Fri, 8 Mar 2002 10:41:33 -0500

[Jack]
> PEP 278 has been quietly sitting there with nothing much happening, 
> after some initial discussion with two or three people.
>> First question: would people please review it, and preferrably also
> test it (esp. windows and linux are platforms on which I would like
> to see it tested).

+1 on handling any type of newline in Python source. Does this mean
fixing the crock where the lexer can handle foreign newlines in files,
but not in strings. (Haven't looked at your code, and it probably
wouldn't help; I spent many hours staring at the lexer a year or two ago
and I never understood what was going on with newlines until Guido
explained it at IPC10. Sigh.)
+1 on optionally exposing the ability to handle any type of newline
in an input file.
-1 on this being a configure-time option -- language features should
not be selectable when the interpreter is built, or portability
goes out the window!
-1 on using a file mode character that conflicts with existing
conventions (eg. if "t" really is already used on Windows, find
something else).
I guess that averages out to a nice big round 0 on the PEP overall.
Don't be discouraged, it sounds like you're on the right track to me!
This'll be one for the press release: "New in Python 2.3! Python can
now handle newlines *and* timezones!!" ;->
 Greg
-- 
Greg Ward - just another Python hacker gward@python.net
http://starship.python.net/~gward/
Pointers are Arrays; Code is Data; Time is Money