Unicode entries on sys.path

[vincent wehren]

Just wrote:
> In article <41CB0D7A.3080107 at v.loewis.de>,
>  "Martin v. Lowis" <martin at v.loewis.de> wrote:
> 
> 
>>>Hm, maybe more a windows question than a python question...
>>
>>The real question here is: why does Python not support arbitrary
>>Unicode strings on sys.path? It could, in principle, atleast on
>>Windows NT+ (and also on OSX). Patches are welcome.
> 
> 
> Works for me on OSX 10.3.6, as it should: prior to using the sys.path 
> entry, a unicode string is encoded with Py_FileSystemDefaultEncoding. 

For this conversion "mbcs" will be used on Windows machines, implying 
that such conversions are made using the current system Ansi codepage.
(As a matter of interest: What is this on OSX?). This conversion is 
likely to be useless for unicode directory names containing characters 
that do not have a mapping to a character in this particular codepage.

The technique described by Martin may solve the problem for what in this 
case are Japanese characters, but what if I have directory names from 
another language group, such as simpliefied Chinese, as well?

The only way to get around this is to allow - as Martin suggests - 
arbitrary unicode strings in sys.path on those platforms that may have 
unicode file names.

--
Vincen Wehren

> I'm not sure how well it works together with zipimport, though.
> 

> Just