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Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:36:00 -0400
From: Dave Angel <d@davea.name>
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To: Mark Adam <dreamingforward@gmail.com>, PYTHON <python-list@python.org>
Subject: Re: python file API
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Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:29947

(forwarding to the list)

On 09/24/2012 06:23 PM, Mark Adam wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 4:49 PM, Dave Angel <d@davea.name> wrote:
>> On 09/24/2012 05:35 PM, zipher wrote:
>>> For some time now, I've wanted to suggest a better abstraction for the <file> type in Python.  It currently uses an antiquated C-style interface for moving around in a file, with methods like tell() and seek().  But after attributes were introduced to Python, it seems it should be re-addressed.
>>>
>>> Let file-type have an attribute .pos for position.   Now you can get rid of the seek() and tell() methods and manipulate the file pointer more easily with standard arithmetic operations.
>>>
>>>>>> file.pos = x0ae1      #move file pointer to an absolute address
>>>>>> file.pos +=1            #increment the file pointer one byte
>>>>>> curr_pos = file.pos  #read current file pointer
> 
>> And what approach would you use for positioning relative to
>> end-of-file?  That's currently done with an optional second parameter to
>> seek() method.
> 
> As size is an oft-useful construct, let it (like .name) be part of the
> descriptor.  Then
> 
>>>> file.pos = file.size - 80  #80 chars from end-of-file
> 
> (Or, one could make slices part of the API...)
> 
> mark
> 

Well, if one of the goals was to reduce the number of attributes, we're
now back to the original number of them.

-- 

DaveA