est <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > IMHO it's even better to output wrong encodings rather than halt the > WHOLE damn program by an exception
I can't agree with this. The correct thing to do in the face of ambiguity is for Python to refuse to guess. > When debugging encoding problems, the solution is simple. If > characters display wrong, switch to another encoding, one of them > must be right. That's debugging problems not in the program but in the *data*, which Python is helping with by making the problems apparent as soon as feasible to do so. > But it's tiring in python to deal with encodings, you have to wrap > EVERY SINGLE character expression with try ... except ... just imagine > what pain it is. That sounds like a rather poor program design. Much better to sanitise the inputs to the program at a few well-defined points, and know from that point that the program is dealing internally with Unicode. > Dealing with character encodings is really simple. Given that your solutions are baroque and complicated, I don't think even you yourself can believe that statement. > Like I said, str() should NOT throw an exception BY DESIGN, it's a > basic language standard. Any code should throw an exception if the input is both ambiguous and invalid by the documented specification. > str() is not only a convert to string function, but also a > serialization in most cases.(e.g. socket) My simple suggestion is: > If it's a unicode character, output as UTF-8; other wise just ouput > byte array, please do not encode it with really stupid range(128) > ASCII. It's not guessing, it's totally wrong. Your assumption would require that UTF-8 be a lowest *common* denominator for most output devices Python will be connected to. That's simply not the case; the lowest common denominator is still ASCII. I yearn for a future where all output devices can be assumed, in the absence of other information, to understand a common Unicode encoding (e.g. UTF-8), but we're not there yet and it would be a grave mistake for Python to falsely behave as though we were. -- \ “I went to a fancy French restaurant called ‘Déjà Vu’. The head | `\ waiter said, ‘Don't I know you?’” —Steven Wright | _o__) | Ben Finney -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
