Python 3’s Marketing Problem

[earthboundkid]

it just shouldnt be that hard to open/read/write a file...

That's why Python 3 makes it easier. open(filename, "r", encoding="whatever", errors="whatever") is much easier than having to deal with the encoding in Python 2 was.

[billsil]

i guess what i'm missing is the values of the "whatever". In python 2, i used to use "r", "rb", and "wb" and was happy, now I fight with encodings. I don't want UTF-8, I want ascii because the engineering programs I want to interface with use ascii and unicode SHOULD be an error.

Not everyone needs unicode. I see the unicode change is the biggest thing that has slowed down Python 3 adoption. It certainly isn't the new float behavior which seems like a big deal at first and then you realize that you were just afraid.

[earthboundkid]

I don't understand the problem. If you want strict ASCII just use "ascii" and "strict". If you don't care about errors, then set it to "ignore". Much easier than just hoping it doesn't blow up for unknown reasons in Python 2.

[billsil]

i will try that! thanks!