bytes vs. characters [LWN.net]

bytes vs. characters

Posted Apr 15, 2015 18:35 UTC (Wed) by HelloWorld (guest, #56129)
In reply to: bytes vs. characters by david.a.wheeler
Parent article: Report from the Python Language Summit

> But the world isn't perfect. In particular, data sources routinely lie about their encoding, and Python 3 interferes with handling the real world instead of helping with it.
The world is a messy place because we make it one. It's the idiotic “be liberal in what you accept” doctrine that led us here, and the only way out is to not create more crap that tries to cope with bad input in “helpful” ways rather than simply rejecting bad input.

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bytes vs. characters

Posted Apr 15, 2015 21:28 UTC (Wed) by tpo (subscriber, #25713) [Link] (1 responses)

> The world is a messy place because we make it one. It's the idiotic “be liberal in what you accept” doctrine that led us here, and the only way out is to not create more crap that tries to cope with bad input in “helpful” ways rather than simply rejecting bad input.

I think "Truth" and "right" are attributes of the powerful. Whereas "be liberal in what you accept" is an expression of humility, of the wish to serve.

I can see the point of standing up for a cause. But probably the cause must not be self serving in order to legitimize the use of the force of refusal.

Maybe.

Remember what consequences "being right" had during the browser wars? Or how "being right" is constructing walled gardens today?

bytes vs. characters

Posted Apr 16, 2015 13:22 UTC (Thu) by smitty_one_each (subscriber, #28989) [Link]

> "be liberal in what you accept" is an expression of humility, of the wish to serve.

Excess rigidity is the key to maintaining a negligible user base.