Also includes a simple fix for test_applesingle.

The core of this fix is to change Python/mactoolboxglue.c:PyMac_BuildOSType(OSType) to return a bytes object instead of a str8, and then to go through the python code and change the four-character-codes to bytes. This hits a snag when they're used as dictionary keys, since bytes isn't hashable, so a hacky little b2i() function converts them to ints first. b2i() should go away when someone writes the general bytes/int conversion api.

This is discussed some at http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-3000/2007-July/008935.html. If Talin's and Ronald's preference from that thread is taken, then PyMac_BuildOSType should return their new type instead.

Committed revision 56560.

(Except I changed the open mode from the unconventional 'bw' to 'wb'. :-)

But I like black'n'white files. ;)

I've attached a patch changing b2i to str for using 4CCs in dicts. Since this file, at least, never needs to convert back, nothing's ambiguous about it, and I do like the idea of being able to read these while debugging. The test still passes.
File Added: aepack_b2i_to_str.diff

Hmm...  What if there's a 4CC containing a non-ASCII byte?

On the list we agreed not to apply the second patch.