diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Doc/lib/libbinascii.tex')
| -rw-r--r-- | Doc/lib/libbinascii.tex | 17 |
1 files changed, 8 insertions, 9 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/lib/libbinascii.tex b/Doc/lib/libbinascii.tex index 6938eeb..4e3d674 100644 --- a/Doc/lib/libbinascii.tex +++ b/Doc/lib/libbinascii.tex @@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ method). \end{funcdesc} \begin{funcdesc}{hexbin}{input\optional{\, output}} -Decode a binhex file \var{input}. \var{Input} may be a filename or a +Decode a binhex file \var{input}. \var{input} may be a filename or a file-like object supporting \var{read} and \var{close} methods. The resulting file is written to a file named \var{output}, unless the argument is empty in which case the output filename is read from the @@ -40,14 +40,13 @@ As of this writing, \var{hexbin} appears to not work in all cases. This module encodes and decodes files in uuencode format, allowing arbitrary binary data to be transferred over ascii-only connections. -Whereever a file argument is expected, the methods accept either a -pathname (\code{'-'} for stdin/stdout) or a file-like object. - -Normally you would pass filenames, but there is one case where you -have to open the file yourself: if you are on a non-unix platform and -your binary file is actually a textfile that you want encoded -unix-compatible you will have to open the file yourself as a textfile, -so newline conversion is performed. +Wherever a file argument is expected, the methods accept a file-like +object. For backwards compatibility, a string containing a pathname +is also accepted, and the corresponding file will be opened for +reading and writing; the pathname \code{'-'} is understood to mean the +standard input or output. However, this interface is deprecated; it's +better for the caller to open the file itself, and be sure that, when +required, the mode is \code{'rb'} or \code{'wb'} on Windows or DOS. This code was contributed by Lance Ellinghouse, and modified by Jack Jansen. |