Re: Counter intuitive default value for 'allow_unicode' in PyYAML

Andrey Somov wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> By default PyYAML outputs an ASCII character stream escaping Unicode 
> characters:
> 
> 'Über' -> '\xDCber'

Technically, it's "\xDCber", not '\xDCber'.  The former is a 
representation of the text:

	Über

while the latter is a representation of the text:

	\xDCber

Note:
 >>> print yaml.load('Über')
Über
 >>> print yaml.load(r''' "\xDCber" ''')
Über
 >>> print yaml.load(r''' '\xDCber' ''')
\xDCber

PyYAML is completely in compliance with the YAML specs here.  There are 
two choices for the emitter when it encounters a non-ASCII character: 
either emit the scalar in the UTF-8 encoding or use the double-quote 
style and escape non-ASCII characters.  Both are correct and supported 
by the PyYAML emitter.  By default, the emitter uses the conservative 
approach: it escapes non-ASCII characters since it ensures that the 
document is always readable on ASCII terminals.  While it may produce a 
less readable result, it's safer.


Thanks,
Kirill

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