Can we get rid of non-raw write?

[Dmitry Olshansky]

20-Mar-2013 18:34, Nick Sabalausky пишет:
> Since *at least* as far back as XP, Windows has handled "\n" newlines
> perfectly fine. The command line displays them properly, .BAT scripts
> handle them properly, every code editor in existence handles them
> properly. The *only* thing I've found that doesn't is Windows Notepad,
> but really, whoTF uses that anyway?
>
> So, why are silently and forcefully converting "\n" to "\r\n" on
> windows by default? All it does is cause bugs. For example:
> https://github.com/repeatedly/mustache-d/issues/3
>
> And that's definitely not the first time I've run into problems due
> using the "write*" functions instead of rawWrite.
>
> Consider this straightforward code:
>
> --------------------------------------
> import std.file;
> import std.stdio;
>
> void transform(string str)
> {
> 	/+ ...perform some modification of 'str'... +/
> 	return str;
> }
>
> void main()
> {
> 	auto str = cast(string) read(args[1]);
> 	str = transform(str);
> 	write(str);
> }
> --------------------------------------
>
> That simple code is *wrong*:
>
> It works correctly for all input on Unix: Output newlines match input
> newlines. Always. The code never asks for newlines to be messed with,
> and therefore they never are.
>
> But on Windows the behavior is just plain weird: Unix-style newlines in
> the input are silently and forcefully converted to Windows-style
> newlines behind the user's back. And even worse yet, *Windows*-style
> newlines on the input are converted to a bizarre "Mac9 plus
> Windows-style" combination of "\r\r\n" (not only is that wrong period,
> but this sequence is often interpreted as two newlines which makes it
> even worse). Using rawWrite fixes the problem, and creates *no* problem.
> I feel like the current "write*" behavior is a design Steve Jobs would
> have come up with.
>
> So how is this useful to anyone, and how is it worthy of being the
> default output behavior?

No. Let's obliterate it. The only problem is compatibility and the fact 
that Windows has had this "text mode" for I/O in e.g. MSVCRT for a long 
time. It never helped me in any sensible way except that "yay! I can 
view it in notepad!"  but broken many things far too often.

>
> Even with Windows as my primary system, there hasn't been one single
> time "write*"'s output-altering "feature" has helped me by doing
> something more correctly than rawWrite would have done. And that's just
> when I'm dealing with pure text. I'm literally better off just using
> rawWrite everywhere, which is exactly what I intend to do from now on
> (and I'll be viewing uses of "write*" with suspicion as latent bugs) -
> unlike "write*", rawWrite *never* does the wrong thing.
>
> Can we please get rid of this "text-mode output"? Or at least eliminate
> it as the default?
>


-- 
Dmitry Olshansky