binascii.a2b_* functions could accept unicode strings

[pitrou]

BPO	13637
Nosy	@pitrou, @vstinner, @bitdancer, @berkerpeksag, @vadmium, @vajrasky
Files	binasciistr.patch fix_doc_binascii_unhexlify.patch better_error_message_binascii.patch fix_doc_binascii_unhexlify.v2.patch fix_doc_binascii_unhexlify.v3.patch

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2015-02-14.22:33:10.215>
created_at = <Date 2011-12-19.16:30:44.388>
labels = ['type-bug', 'library', 'docs']
title = 'binascii.a2b_* functions could accept unicode strings'
updated_at = <Date 2015-02-22.00:17:47.705>
user = 'https://github.com/pitrou'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2015-02-22.00:17:47.705>
actor = 'r.david.murray'
assignee = 'docs@python'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2015-02-14.22:33:10.215>
closer = 'berker.peksag'
components = ['Documentation', 'Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2011-12-19.16:30:44.388>
creator = 'pitrou'
dependencies = []
files = ['24060', '32461', '32463', '38038', '38132']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 13637
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 20.0
messages = ['149876', '149905', '149911', '149913', '153829', '154265', '154964', '155001', '201963', '201972', '202181', '235545', '235931', '235934', '235996', '236000', '236001', '236373', '236390', '236395']
nosy_count = 10.0
nosy_names = ['pitrou', 'vstinner', 'luke-jr', 'Arfrever', 'r.david.murray', 'docs@python', 'python-dev', 'berker.peksag', 'martin.panter', 'vajrasky']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue13637'
versions = ['Python 3.3']

[pitrou]

a2b_hex and friends accept only byte strings:

>>> binascii.a2b_hex(b'00')
b'\x00'
>>> binascii.a2b_hex('00')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: 'str' does not support the buffer interface

But they could just as well accept ASCII-only unicode strings. Also, with PEP-393, accessing the 8-bit ASCII data doesn't even need a conversion.

[pitrou]

Here is a patch.

[python-dev]

New changeset eb8d62706d5f by Antoine Pitrou in branch 'default':
Issue bpo-13637: "a2b" functions in the binascii module now accept ASCII-only unicode strings.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/eb8d62706d5f

[pitrou]

Committed now.

[bitdancer]

I disagree with this feature. Reopening pending discussion on python-dev.

[bitdancer]

Discussion resolved in favor of patch.

[luke-jr]

Has this been fixed in 3.2 yet? Somehow it seems to have been "reclassified" as an enhancement when it's really a regression. str worked fine in these functions in 3.1.

[Arfrever]

I confirm that it works in Python 3.1 and doesn't work in Python 3.2.