[Python-Dev] Encodings

[Greg Stein]

On Fri, Jul 07, 2000 at 06:24:13PM -0500, Paul Prescod wrote:
> "Martin v. Loewis" wrote:
> > 
> > > ...
> > >Only if the default encoding is ASCII.
> > 
> > That is not my understanding of the agreement, and I think the whole
> > idea of a default encoding is a stupid one. 
> 
> Let me be more tactful and say that I am not really comfortable with my
> code changing behavior subtly because of an environment variable. A
> default encoding might be interesting at I/O boundaries like print,
> raw_input() and read(), but I would rather it didn't work pervasively
> through the code.

Agreed.

When this whole thing started, I thought there was going to be a fixed
default encoding. Then the "changeable default" snuck into the code under
the guise of "experimental work". Now that changeable default seems
ingrained into the code and is introducing exactly the problems that we
feared last fall -- unpredictability.

Please... toss the changeable default. If everybody knows the default
encoding is "ascii" and they want something else, then they know what to do.
But when the default can change, then it can't be relied on. The coder is
going to have to do an explicit encoding anyways. So why have a default?

Cheers,
-g

-- 
Greg Stein, http://www.lyra.org/