Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
  This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.
  Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.
  Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.
  Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.
  Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
  Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.
  You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.
  Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.
  This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.
  Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.
  Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.
  Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.
  Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
  
    
  
    
This PR adds a
Bytesdtype that is nearly identical to the existingVariableLengthBytesdtype save a few differences:"bytes"instead of"variable_length_bytes"Bytesis consistent with a published spec, instead of not being described by a spec.The latter point is the most important.
Because
Bytesis nearly identical toVariableLengthBytes, it could be a drop-in replacement forVariableLengthBytes, save for the JSON fill value encoding differences between the two codecs, which raises two questions:bytesdata type and thevariable_length_bytesdata types could be fused completely.Since zarr python 2.x was saving bytes fill values as base64-encoded strings, there's a bit of inertia there. Would also be good to hear thoughts from other implementers (@LDeakin , @jbms, @manzt )