I don't mind your name of autotextfile but I think that your by_content argument defeats the goal of having a very simple API for quick and dirty stuff. If content detection is a good idea (usually right) then we should do it. If it isn't, we shouldn't. I don't see a need for an argument to turn it on and off. The programmer is not likely to have a lot more understanding than we do of whether it is effective or not.
<br><br>Also, there are two different levels of content detection (as someone later in the thread pointed out). There is looking at BOMs, and there is a statistical approach of looking for high characters and inferring their encoding. I can't see an argument for ever turning off the BOM detection.
<br><br> Paul Prescod<br><br>