making 'utf-8' default codec

[Nikola Skoric]

Hi there,

Is there a way of making 'utf-8' default codec for the whole program, so
I don't have to do .encode('utf-8') every time I print out a string?

 

[Jarek Zgoda]

Nikola Skoric napisa³(a):

Is there a way of making 'utf-8' default codec for the whole program, so
I don't have to do .encode('utf-8') every time I print out a string?

Bad idea. You may accidentally break some libraries that depend on ASCII
being default & standard.

 

[Scott David Daniels]

Is there a way of making 'utf-8' default codec for the whole program, so
I don't have to do .encode('utf-8') every time I print out a string?

Explicit is better than implicit (so setting up a default codec is
considered bad practice). However, you could wrap an output destination
with an encoder and get the effect you want.

import sys, codecs
sys.stdout, _held = (codecs.getwriter('utf-8')(sys.stdout),
sys.stdout)

--Scott David Daniels
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Jorge Godoy]

Bad idea. You may accidentally break some libraries that depend on ASCII
being default & standard.

And what would those produce as output when fed with unicode data? How would
they handle this input? IMVHO nothing should rely on having a standard
charset as input. If it is required, then the library should set it up by
itself: explicit is better than implicit.

--
Jorge Godoy <[email protected]>

"Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur."
- Qualquer coisa dita em latim soa profundo.
- Anything said in Latin sounds smart.

 

[Jarek Zgoda]

Jorge Godoy napisa³(a):

And what would those produce as output when fed with unicode data? How would
they handle this input? IMVHO nothing should rely on having a standard
charset as input. If it is required, then the library should set it up by
itself: explicit is better than implicit.

Besides that, changing default encoding will make program nearly
absolutely unportable as Python by default installs nearly everywhere
with ASCII as default encoding (with iSeries being the only exception
known to me).