Convertion of Unicode to ASCII NIGHTMARE

[John Machin]

"Thus you lose data, but thats just dandy with
me.": Please reconsider this attitude, before you perpetrate a nonsense
or even a disaster.

Wrt your last para:
1. Roger didn't say "ignore" -- he said "won't accept" (a major
difference).
2. The ASCII code comprises 128 characters, *NOT* 256.
3. What Roger means is: given a Python 8-bit string and no other
information, you don't have a clue what the encoding is. Most codes of
interest these days have the ASCII code (or a mild perversion thereof)
in the first 128 positions, but it's anyones guess what the writer of
the string had in mind with the next 128.