Re: a little parsing challenge ☺

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Date	2011-07-19 15:36 +1000
Subject	Re: a little parsing challenge ☺
From	Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.python
Message-ID	<mailman.1238.1311053796.1164.python-list@python.org> (permalink)

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On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 2:59 PM, rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> wrote:
> Some evidences of leakiness:
> code point vs character vs byte
> encoding and decoding
> UTF-x and UCS-y
>
> Very important and necessary distinctions? Maybe... But I did not need
> them when my world was built of the 127 bricks of ASCII.

Codepoint vs byte is NOT an abstraction. Unicode consists of
characters, where each character is represented by a number called its
codepoint. Since computers work with bytes, we need a way of encoding
those characters into bytes. It's no different from encoding a piece
of music in bytes, and having it come out as 0x90 0x64 0x40. Are those
bytes an abstraction of the note? No. They're an encoding of a MIDI
message that requests that the note be struck. The note itself is an
abstraction, if you like; but the bytes to create that note could be
delivered in a variety of other ways.

A Python Unicode string, whether it's Python 2's 'unicode' or Python
3's 'str', is a sequence of characters. Since those characters are
stored in memory, they must be encoded somehow, but that's not our
problem. We need only care about encoding when we save those
characters to disk, transmit them across the network, or in some other
way need to store them as bytes. Otherwise, there is no abstraction,
and no leak.

Chris Angelico

Thread

a little parsing challenge ☺ Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> - 2011-07-17 00:47 -0700
  Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Raymond Hettinger <python@rcn.com> - 2011-07-17 02:48 -0700
    Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2011-07-17 15:20 +0200
      Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ mhenn <michihenn@hotmail.com> - 2011-07-17 15:55 +0200
        Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2011-07-17 18:01 +0200
          Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2011-07-17 18:54 +0200
    Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Thomas Boell <tboell@domain.invalid> - 2011-07-17 17:49 +0200
      Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Raymond Hettinger <python@rcn.com> - 2011-07-17 12:16 -0700
    Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> - 2011-07-18 07:39 -0700
      Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2011-07-20 08:23 +0200
      Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> - 2011-07-20 03:31 -0700
        Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ "Uri Guttman" <uri@StemSystems.com> - 2011-07-20 12:31 -0400
          Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2011-07-20 10:30 -0700
          Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ merlyn@stonehenge.com (Randal L. Schwartz) - 2011-07-20 12:06 -0700
            Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Jason Earl <jearl@notengoamigos.org> - 2011-07-20 14:57 -0600
    Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> - 2011-07-19 09:54 -0700
      Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Thomas Jollans <t@jollybox.de> - 2011-07-19 20:07 +0200
        Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> - 2011-07-21 05:58 -0700
          Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2011-07-21 08:26 -0600
            Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> - 2011-07-21 08:36 -0700
              Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ python@bdurham.com - 2011-07-21 12:43 -0400
                Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> - 2011-07-21 11:53 -0700
                Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2011-07-21 18:37 -0400
          Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ John O'Hagan <research@johnohagan.com> - 2011-07-25 15:57 +1000
      Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2011-07-19 12:08 -0600
  Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-07-17 21:34 +1000
    Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2011-07-17 04:52 -0700
    Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2011-07-17 16:15 +0200
      Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Raymond Hettinger <python@rcn.com> - 2011-07-17 12:18 -0700
        Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2011-07-17 22:16 +0200
          Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Thomas Jollans <t@jollybox.de> - 2011-07-17 22:57 +0200
      Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2011-07-17 23:43 +0200
      Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Rouslan Korneychuk <rouslank@msn.com> - 2011-07-18 03:09 -0400
        Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Stefan Behnel <stefan_ml@behnel.de> - 2011-07-18 09:24 +0200
          Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Rouslan Korneychuk <rouslank@msn.com> - 2011-07-18 04:04 -0400
        Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2011-07-18 18:46 +0200
          Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Rouslan Korneychuk <rouslank@msn.com> - 2011-07-18 14:14 -0400
        Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> - 2011-07-21 06:23 -0700
          Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Rouslan Korneychuk <rouslank@msn.com> - 2011-07-21 17:54 -0400
  Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ gene heskett <gheskett@wdtv.com> - 2011-07-17 10:26 -0400
  Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Thomas Jollans <t@jollybox.de> - 2011-07-17 08:31 -0700
    Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> - 2011-07-19 10:49 -0700
      Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Thomas Jollans <t@jollybox.de> - 2011-07-19 20:14 +0200
        Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> - 2011-07-21 05:29 -0700
          Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Thomas Jollans <t@jollybox.de> - 2011-07-21 15:21 +0200
      Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Thomas Jollans <t@jollybox.de> - 2011-07-19 20:17 +0200
  Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ rantingrick <rantingrick@gmail.com> - 2011-07-17 18:52 -0700
  Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Billy Mays <81282ed9a88799d21e77957df2d84bd6514d9af6@myhashismyemail.com> - 2011-07-18 13:12 -0400
    Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2011-07-18 12:10 -0600
      Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2011-07-18 23:59 +0200
        Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2011-07-19 08:09 +0200
        Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> - 2011-07-19 10:32 -0700
    Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-07-19 09:56 +1000
      Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Billy Mays <noway@nohow.com> - 2011-07-18 22:07 -0400
        Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2011-07-18 19:50 -0700
          Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-07-19 13:11 +1000
            Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2011-07-18 21:59 -0700
              Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-07-19 15:36 +1000
        Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com> - 2011-07-19 04:08 +0100
        Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Benjamin Kaplan <benjamin.kaplan@case.edu> - 2011-07-18 20:54 -0700
        Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-07-19 14:30 +1000
        Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> - 2011-07-19 01:58 -0700
    Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> - 2011-07-19 10:14 -0700
      Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Billy Mays <81282ed9a88799d21e77957df2d84bd6514d9af6@myhashismyemail.com> - 2011-07-19 13:33 -0400
        Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> - 2011-07-19 11:12 -0700
          Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2011-07-19 15:09 -0400
            Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ jmfauth <wxjmfauth@gmail.com> - 2011-07-19 23:29 -0700
              Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2011-07-20 01:29 -0600
                Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ jmfauth <wxjmfauth@gmail.com> - 2011-07-20 00:54 -0700
                Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-07-20 18:18 +1000
  Re: a little parsing challenge ? sln@netherlands.com - 2011-07-18 12:34 -0700
  Re: a little parsing challenge ☺ Mark Tarver <dr.mtarver@gmail.com> - 2011-07-19 22:43 -0700

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