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 You've now simplified the API by the removal of two obscure legacy methods and replaced them with a more basic one called "position". Thoughts? markj -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
