[whatwg] API for encoding/decoding ArrayBuffers into text

[Tab Atkins Jr.]

On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Jonas Sicking <jonas at sicking.cc> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> Something that has come up a couple of times with content authors
> lately has been the desire to convert an ArrayBuffer (or part thereof)
> into a decoded string. Similarly being able to encode a string into an
> ArrayBuffer (or part thereof).
>
> Something as simple as
>
> DOMString decode(ArrayBufferView source, DOMString encoding);
> ArrayBufferView encode(DOMString source, DOMString encoding,
> [optional] ArrayBufferView destination);
>
> would go a very long way. The question is where to stick these
> functions. Internationalization doesn't have a obvious object we can
> hang functions off of (unlike, for example crypto), and the above
> names are much too generic to turn into global functions.
>
> Ideas/opinions/bikesheds?

Python3 just defines str.encode and bytes.decode.  Can we not do this
with String.encode and ArrayBuffer.decode?

~TJ