[Python-Dev] PEP 383: Non-decodable Bytes in System Character Interfaces

Wed Apr 22 14:31:09 CEST 2009

On 22/04/2009 14:20, glyph at divmod.com wrote:
> -1. On UNIX, character data is not sufficient to represent paths. We
> must, must, must continue to have a simple bytes interface to these
> APIs. Covering it up in layers of obscure encoding hacks will not make
> the problem go away, it will just make it harder to understand.

As a hg developer, I have to concur. Keeping bytes-based APIs intact 
would make porting hg to py3k much, much easier. You may be able to 
imagine that dealing with paths correctly cross-platform on a VCS is a 
major PITA, and py3k is currently not helping the situation.
Cheers,
Dirkjan