[Python-Dev] Printing and __unicode__

[Guido van Rossum]

> > > B. A file indicates "unicode-awareness" somehow. For a Unicode-aware
> > >    file, it tries __unicode__, __str__, and __repr__, in order.
> > 
> > I like this.
> 
> Ok, then the question is: How can a file indicate its
> unicode-awareness? I propose that presence of an attribute "encoding"
> is taken as such an indication; this would cover all existing cases
> with no change to the file-like objects. 

+1

> In case the stream is "natively" Unicode (i.e. doesn't ever convert to
> byte strings), setting encoding to None should be allowed (this
> actually indicates that StringIO should have the encoding attribute).

+1

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)