helper: get rid of decode_string()

It just adds unnecessary type confusion.

In most places where it is used, the types are always str, so it does
nothing. In the few others, the encoding/decoding is better handled
explicitly.

1 files changed, 2 insertions, 30 deletions

diff --git a/alot/helper.py b/alot/helper.py
index 5800841d..27652988 100644
--- a/alot/helper.py
+++ b/alot/helper.py
@@ -46,31 +46,6 @@ def split_commandstring(cmdstring):
     assert isinstance(cmdstring, str)
     return shlex.split(cmdstring)
 
-
-def string_decode(string, enc='ascii'):
-    """
-    safely decodes string to unicode bytestring, respecting `enc` as a hint.
-
-    :param string: the string to decode
-    :type string: str or unicode
-    :param enc: a hint what encoding is used in string ('ascii', 'utf-8', ...)
-    :type enc: str
-    :returns: the unicode decoded input string
-    :rtype: unicode
-
-    """
-
-    if enc is None:
-        enc = 'ascii'
-    try:
-        string = str(string, enc, errors='replace')
-    except LookupError:  # malformed enc string
-        string = string.decode('ascii', errors='replace')
-    except TypeError:  # already str
-        pass
-    return string
-
-
 def shorten(string, maxlen):
     """shortens string if longer than maxlen, appending ellipsis"""
     if 1 < maxlen < len(string):
@@ -173,26 +148,23 @@ def call_cmd(cmdlist, stdin=None):
     :rtype: str, str, int
     """
     termenc = urwid.util.detected_encoding
-    if isinstance(stdin, str):
-        stdin = stdin.encode(termenc)
     try:
 
         logging.debug("Calling %s" % cmdlist)
         proc = subprocess.Popen(
             cmdlist,
+            encoding = termenc, errors = 'backslashreplace',
             stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
             stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
             stdin=subprocess.PIPE if stdin is not None else None)
     except OSError as e:
-        out = b''
+        out = ''
         err = e.strerror
         ret = e.errno
     else:
         out, err = proc.communicate(stdin)
         ret = proc.returncode
 
-    out = string_decode(out, termenc)
-    err = string_decode(err, termenc)
     return out, err, ret