[Python-Dev] Improve open() to support reading file starting with an unicode BOM

["Martin v. Löwis"]

> I must say that I find this whole thing pretty obvious. 'BOM' is not
> an encoding.

That I certainly agree with.

> That covers all usecases, is easy and obvious. Either open(file=foo,
> encoding=None) or open(file, encoding=encoding_from_bom(file))
> 
> I can't see that open(file, encoding='BOM') has any benefit over this,

Well, it would have the advantage that Walter pointed out: you can
implement it independent of the open() implementation, and even provide
it in older versions of Python.

Regards,
Martin