From: James Gray <james@...>
Date: 2008-09-22T11:51:19+09:00
Subject: [ruby-core:18777] Re: Character encodings - a less radical suggestion

On Sep 21, 2008, at 9:35 PM, Martin Duerst wrote:

> In terms of potential problems, I see the following:
> - A library sets Encoding::default_internal. That would lead
>  to serious problems, and should be clearly advised against
>  in the documentation. Libraries either have to be written
>  in a general way, or have to document that they only work
>  with certain values of Encoding::default_internal
>  (this proposal would therefore help you, but not e.g.
>   James Gray for the CVS library)

I really think this a bigger minus than this implies.  I can name a  
lot of libraries that just flat out expect UTF-8 and choke and die on  
anything else.  Ruby 1.8 has trained us to think this way for many  
years.

Now, if someone were to change Encoding.default_interal then all these  
libraries will unexpectedly having data changed on them.  I'm pretty  
sure that would cause massive damage.

James Edward Gray II