[Python-Dev] PEP 263 - default encoding

[Martin v. Loewis]

Paul Prescod <paul@prescod.net> writes:

> >     1. Implement the magic comment detection, but only apply the
> >        detected encoding to Unicode literals in the source file.
> > 
> >        If no magic comment is used, Python should continue to
> >        use the standard [raw-]unicode-escape codecs for Unicode
> >        literals.
> 
> Are we thinking about Python's unicode literal syntax as just a codec? I
> know that there is a codec that implements that syntax but I would hate
> to find out that if I use KOI8-R, I no longer have the ability to use \U
> in my code to insert Kanji.

That will continue to be possible. With an encoding declaration, it is
not the "standard" unicode-escape codec anymore. Instead, the string
is first decoded into a Unicode object, then again decoded for
escapes.  The second step is a Unicode->Unicode transformation that
will be available only to parser (although there is currently a debate
whether to make it share code with the byte->unicode unicode-escape
codec).

Regards,
Martin