parser: Accept bytes as input

In addition to (Unicode) strings, also accept "bytes" (and corresponding
iterators) as input to the parser. This allows skipping the
decode/encode step when reading raw data from a file or socket, e.g.
with os.read(). This introduces small, but measurable performance
increase for such cases.

jq.pyx

@@ -108,15 +108,15 @@ cdef object _jv_to_python(jv value):
 
 cdef class _Parser(object):
     cdef jv_parser* _parser
-    cdef object _text_iter
+    cdef object _bytes_iter
     cdef object _bytes
 
     def __dealloc__(self):
         jv_parser_free(self._parser)
 
-    def __cinit__(self, text_iter):
+    def __cinit__(self, bytes_iter):
         self._parser = jv_parser_new(0)
-        self._text_iter = text_iter
+        self._bytes_iter = bytes_iter
         self._bytes = None
 
     def __iter__(self):
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ cdef class _Parser(object):
         cdef char* cbytes
         cdef ssize_t clen
         try:
-            self._bytes = next(self._text_iter).encode("utf8")
+            self._bytes = next(self._bytes_iter)
             PyBytes_AsStringAndSize(self._bytes, &cbytes, &clen)
             jv_parser_set_buf(self._parser, cbytes, clen, 1)
         except StopIteration:
@@ -399,10 +399,33 @@ def text(program, value=_NO_VALUE, text=_NO_VALUE):
     return compile(program).input(value, text=text).text()
 
 
-def parse(text=_NO_VALUE, text_iter=_NO_VALUE):
-    if (text is _NO_VALUE) == (text_iter is _NO_VALUE):
-        raise ValueError("Either the text or text_iter argument should be set")
-    return _Parser(text_iter if text_iter is not _NO_VALUE else _iter((text,)))
+def parse(text=_NO_VALUE, text_iter=_NO_VALUE,
+          bytes=_NO_VALUE, bytes_iter=_NO_VALUE):
+    """
+    Parse a text/bytes stream into JSON. Only one of "text", "text_iter",
+    "bytes", "bytes_iter" arguments is accepted.
+
+    Args:
+        text:       The text to parse.
+        text_iter:  An iterator returning pieces of the text to parse.
+        bytes:      The bytes to parse.
+        bytes_iter: An iterator returning pieces of the bytes to parse.
+
+    Returns:
+        An iterator yielding the parsed JSON values.
+    """
+    if (text, text_iter, bytes, bytes_iter).count(_NO_VALUE) != 3:
+        raise ValueError("Exactly one argument should be set")
+    if text is not _NO_VALUE:
+        bytes = text.encode("utf8")
+    if text_iter is not _NO_VALUE:
+        def encode_text_iter():
+            for text in text_iter:
+                yield text.encode("utf8")
+        bytes_iter = encode_text_iter()
+    if bytes is not _NO_VALUE:
+        bytes_iter = _iter((bytes,))
+    return _Parser(bytes_iter)
 
 
 # Support the 0.1.x API for backwards compatibility

tests/jq_tests.py

@@ -197,9 +197,11 @@ def program_string_can_be_retrieved_from_program():
     assert_equal(".", program.program_string)
 
 @istest
-def parse_both_text_and_text_iter_accepted():
+def parse_all_inputs_accepted():
     assert_equal(True, next(jq.parse(text="true")))
     assert_equal(True, next(jq.parse(text_iter=iter(["true"]))))
+    assert_equal(True, next(jq.parse(bytes=b"true")))
+    assert_equal(True, next(jq.parse(bytes_iter=iter([b"true"]))))
 
 @istest
 def parse_empty_text_iter_stops():