From: Yukihiro Matsumoto <matz@...>
Date: 2007-09-29T14:34:16+09:00
Subject: Re: String.force_encoding

Hi,

In message "Re: String.force_encoding"
    on Sat, 29 Sep 2007 13:39:47 +0900, David Flanagan <david@davidflanagan.com> writes:

|In the changelog, Martin Duerst is credited with suggesting the name 
|force_encoding.  Could Martin or Nobu or Matz explain to non-Japanese 
|speakers the thinking behind this name.  The last I heard it was going 
|to be called "encode".  I can see that the name "encode" has hints of 
|transcoding, and a user might think that it did more than it actually does.

The original #encode was supposed to do

  * code conversion
  * encoding validation
  * encoding tag addition

It's OK for most of the cases, but if one wants to just change an
encoding tag of a string, it's overkill.  That's the reason we prepare
#force_encoding method.  It has a longer name since it's not for
common use.  #encode will remain.

|Also, one more request: can we make force_encoding accept nil as a way 
|to specify ASCII (aka binary) encoding?

Any reason for force_encoding(nil) instead of force_encoding("binary")?

							matz.