[Python-Dev] unicode Exception messages in py2.7

[Terry Reedy]

On 11/14/2013 7:41 PM, Chris Barker wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 3:58 PM, Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> wrote:
>
>> It's not a given that the current behaviour *is* a bug.
>
> I'll concede that it's not a bug unless someone said somewhere that
> unicode messages should work

In particular, what does the reference manual say.

> .. but that's kind of a semantic argument.

Given that committing a patch to an existing version is a binary action 
-- done or not, we have to have a binary semantic decision, 'bug' or 
not, even when the best answer is 'sort of'. We cannot 'sort of' apply a 
patch ;-).

> I have to say it's a very odd choice to me that it suppresses the
> message, rather than raising an encoding error, like what happens
> everywhere else the default encoding is used.

An encoding exception is raised but ignored. Exception handling has 
changed in some details in 3.x. Sometimes two sensible actions interact 
in certain contexts to produce an odd result.

> In fact, I noticed that the message can be anything that can be
> stringified, which makes it particularly wacky that you can't use a
> unicode object.

You can, as long as it can be stringified with the default args. If it 
cannot be, then convert it yourself, with the alternative you choose 
(raise or substitute).

> Is this something that could be improved  or is the current behavior
> the best we could have, given the limitations of strings an unicode in
> py2 anyway?

 From our (core developer viewpoint) that is the wrong question. 2.7 
does not get enhancements. The situation would be different if there 
were going to be a 2.8.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy