a simple unicode question

[Tim Arnold]

"Chris Jones" <cjns1989 at gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:mailman.2149.1256707687.2807.python-list at python.org...
> On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 06:21:11AM EDT, Lie Ryan wrote:
>> Chris Jones wrote:
>
> [..]
>
>>> Best part of Unicode is that there are multiple encodings, right? ;-)
>>
>> No, the best part about Unicode is there is no encoding!
>
>> Unicode does not define any encoding;
>
> RFC 3629:
>
> "ISO/IEC 10646 and Unicode define several encoding forms of their
> common repertoire: UTF-8, UCS-2, UTF-16, UCS-4 and UTF-32."
>
>> what it defines is code-points for  characters which is not related to
>> how characters are encoded in files or network transmission.
>
> In other words, Unicode is "not related to any encoding" .. and yet the
> UTF-8, UTF-16.. "encoding forms" are clearly "related" to Unicode.
>
> How is that possible?
>
> CJ

When I first saw it, my first thought was that the subjectline was an 
oxymoron.

--Tim Arnold