[Python-ideas] [issue33865] [EASY] Missing code page aliases: "unknown encoding: 874"

[Ronald Oussoren]

> On 18 Jun 2018, at 02:34, Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> wrote:
> 
>> Sure, but for at least one user Python 3.6 fails to start because 
>> initialising the sys.std* streams fails due to not finding a “874” 
>> encoding.
> 
> That doesn't mean that the bug is best fixed by adding an alias.

I agree, I’ve mentioned in the issue that I’d like to understand why python looks for an encoding with this name. 
> 
> If the error was failing to find encoding "ltain-1", would we add an 
> alias or fix the spelling? If 874 is not an official alias, we should 
> consider it a misspelling and fix the misspelling, not add an alias.

That depends, if a major platform ships with locales where the encoding is misspelled we have little choice but to add an alias.  To state it too blunt: standards are fine until they conflict with reality.

> 
> But either way, the point Stephen is making is that even if 874 is a 
> legitimate alias, that shouldn't give us carte blanche to add numeric 
> aliases for every encoding.

Possibly just for the “cp…” encodings, but IMHO only if we confirm that the code to look for the preferred encoding returns a codepage number on Windows and changing that code leads to worse results than adding numeric aliases for the “cp…” encodings.

Ronald

> _______________________________________________
> Python-ideas mailing list
> Python-ideas at python.org
> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas
> Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/