Newbie question about text encoding

[Cameron Simpson]

On 07Mar2015 22:09, Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
>Rustom Mody wrote:
>>[...big snip...]
>> Some parts are here some earlier and from my memory.
>> If details wrong please correct:
>> - 200 million records
>> - Containing 4 strings with SMP characters
>> - System made with python and mysql. SMP works with python, breaks mysql.
>>   So whole system broke due to those 4 in 200,000,000 records
>
>No, they broke because MySQL has buggy Unicode handling.
[...]
>> You could also choose do with "astral crap" (Roy's words) what we all do
>> with crap -- throw it out as early as possible.
>
>And when Roy's customers demand that his product support emoji, or complain
>that they cannot spell their own name because of his parochial and ignorant
>idea of "crap", perhaps he will consider doing what he should have done
>from the beginning:
>
>Stop using MySQL, which is a joke of a database[1], and use Postgres which
>does not have this problem.
>
>[1] So I have been told.

I use MySQL a fair bit, and Postgres very slightly. I would agree with your 
characterisation above; MySQL is littered with inconsistencies and arbitrary 
breakage, both in tools and SQL implementation. And Postgres has been a pure 
pleasure to work with, little though I have done that so far.

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson <cs at zip.com.au>

There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply
do as I advise. - Gore Vidal