On Fri, 19 May 2006 13:36:35 -0700, James Stroud wrote: > Paul McGuire wrote: >> Your coding style is a little dated - are you using an old version of >> Python? This style is the old-fashioned way: > [clip] >> 1. open("xxx") still works - not sure if it's even deprecated or not - but >> the new style is to use the file class > > > Python 2.3.4 (#4, Oct 25 2004, 21:40:10) > [GCC 3.3.2 (Mandrake Linux 10.0 3.3.2-6mdk)] on linux2 > Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. > py> open is file > True > > James
As part of a discussion on Python-Dev in 2004 about using open() or file() Guido replied: > Then should the following line in the reference be changed? > > "The file() constructor is new in Python 2.2. The previous spelling, > open(), is retained for compatibility, and is an alias for file()." > > That *strongly* suggests that the preferred spelling is file(), and > that open() shouldn't be used for new code. Oops, yes. I didn't write that, and it doesn't convey my feelings about file() vs. open(). Here's a suggestion for better words: "The file class is new in Python 2.2. It represents the type (class) of objects returned by the built-in open() function. Its constructor is an alias for open(), but for future and backwards compatibility, open() remains preferred." See: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-July/045931.html -- Richard -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list