what is this UnicodeDecodeError:....?

[John Machin]

Steve Holden wrote:
> John Machin wrote:
> > :-)
[stuff]
> > (-:
> >
> I see you also use little-endian smileys in the antipodes.
>

I was using it  in a bracketing manner similar to the Spanish ¿and ¡
except at the other end of the bracketed text. This admittedly
confusing usage of course overloads the normal :-) While that sort of
caper should be a doddle for a document-level parser, it could present
a problem to parsers with limited buffers (like humans), so it looks
like I should reverse the order.

I wonder what Unicode.org would think of a proposal for 4 new
characters: open/close smiley/grumpy bracket. No weirder than some of
the characters on the roster.

Cheers,
John