From: Martin Duerst <duerst@...>
Date: 2008-02-21T18:16:08+09:00
Subject: Options for String#encode

I just commited a very first implementation of using a hash for
additional options to String#encode (r15565). Matz told me where
to copy code from, so the implementation was pretty straightforward.

The functionality is currently extremely limited: It is possible to
indicate that instead of producing an error, invalid input bytes
should just be ignored (i.e. dropped). This is done as follows:
String#encode(to_encoding, invalid: :ignore)


I'm now looking for comments on how to name these and further options.

invalid: What to do for an invalid byte (sequence) in the input

unknown: What to do if the target encoding doesn't include the character

???: We may need a third option, to indicate a combination of invalid
     and unknown.


Values for each of the above options could include:

:ignore - Ignore/drop the problem data.

:substitute (or :subst or so to be shorter) - Use an
          (encoding-dependent) substitution character.

:warn   - Produce a warning, helpful for debugging.

:error  - The current behavior, available just for completeness.

:stop   - Stop transcoding, for encode! this will mean
          loosing the rest of the string.

:x_escape - add problem data to the output using \x escapes

:u_escape - add problem characters to the output using \u escapes
            (unknown: only)

:hex_ncr - add problem characters to the output using XML/HTML
           hex escapes (&#xhhhh;, unknown: only)

:dec_ncr - add problem characters to the output using XML/HTML
           dec escapes (&#ddddd;, unknown: only)

:uri_escape - add problem characters to the output using
           UTF-8->URI %-encoding conversion (for IRI->URI
           conversion and similar things, unknown: only)

:block - Use result of block, with interface to be worked out
         (only needed to indicate that a block is used for
          one case but not for the other)

'string' - Replace by string (have to work out details about
           encoding,...)


Regards,    Martin.


#-#-#  Martin J. Du"rst, Assoc. Professor, Aoyama Gakuin University
#-#-#  http://www.sw.it.aoyama.ac.jp       mailto:duerst@it.aoyama.ac.jp