building python with utf-8 default encoding?

[metaperl.etc]

I am playing around with OpenSwarm and was shocked to see that I cannot
build Python with default encoding of utf-8 by passing a flag to
configure... did I miss the option for doing so?

 

[Robert Kern]

I am playing around with OpenSwarm and was shocked to see that I cannot
build Python with default encoding of utf-8 by passing a flag to
configure... did I miss the option for doing so?

No. The default encoding (the return value of sys.getdefaultencoding()) should
alway be 'ascii'. Otherwise, programs written on one machine will not run on
other machines.

--
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
an underlying truth."
-- Umberto Eco

 

[Jim]

I am playing around with OpenSwarm and was shocked to see that I cannot
build Python with default encoding of utf-8 by passing a flag to
configure... did I miss the option for doing so?

It is not set when you build but is instead set in sitecustomize.py.
But changing it is typically inadvisable in that any programs you write
will not port to other people's machines.

Jim