Re: raw-unicode-escape encoding

[David Goodger]
>> "a form suitable for usage in Python source code": that's exactly what
>> I want. Cross-platform compatibility requires 7-bit ASCII source code.
>> The raw-unicode-escape codec produces 8-bit Latin-1, which doesn't
>> survive the trip to MacOS.

[Martin v. Loewis]
> If you put it into Python source, it sure does survive the trip to
> MacOS - assuming you manage not to convert the Python source file when
> putting it on a Mac disk.

Unfortunately, that's an assumption that's easily broken by all kinds of
well-meaning tools (browsers, unarchivers, etc.). Which is why I want a
7-bit representation.

>> If I'm not mistaken, '\xa7' is *not* the same as '\u00a7'
> 
> You are mistaken.

Would I still be mistaken if I put it like this: '\xa7' is not the same as
u'\u00a7'? (Note the '' and u''.) That's what the raw-unicode-escape coded
is doing.

> It appears then that the raw-unicode-escape codec is not suited for
> your application; you will probably need to write your own. This has
> the advantage that you'll know exactly what it is doing.

Fair enough. Thanks for clarifying. I'll try writing a codec; at the least,
it will improve my understanding of how all this fits together.

>> Why Latin-1 and not 7-bit ASCII? Is that documented anywhere?
> 
> The unicode-escape codec is not documented at all. How do you know it
> exists?

By using the source. :-)

>> I would like to use a codec which escapes all char for ord(char)
>> from 128 up, but leaves all 7-bit ASCII alone. Is there any such
>> beast?
> 
> "utf-7" fits that description, except that it will escape '+'.
> Something that produces ASCII and does not escape anything does
> not exist - you normally have to escape the escape character.

That would be acceptable; I'll give it a try.

Thank you, Martin and Marc-Andre, for your thoughtful replies.

-- 
David Goodger    [email protected]    Open-source projects:
 - Python Docstring Processing System: http://docstring.sourceforge.net
 - reStructuredText: http://structuredtext.sourceforge.net
 - The Go Tools Project: http://gotools.sourceforge.net