default encoding / supported encodings

[massimosala]

Hi

I read the docs, also

MicroPython differences from CPython
https://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/genrst/index.html

but I cannot find an explanation.

Please see the following tests.

Cpython 3

>>> ord('à')
224

>>> 'à'.encode("ascii")
UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character '\xe0' in position 0: ordinal not in range(128)

>>> 'à'.encode("latin1")
b'\xe0'

>>> 'à'.encode("utf-8")
b'\xc3\xa0'

>>> bytes("à", "latin1")
b'\xe0'

>>> bytes("à", "utf-8")
b'\xc3\xa0'

---

Micropython (esp8266)

>>> chr(224).encode()
b'\xc3\xa0'

>>> chr(224).encode("ascii")
b'\xc3\xa0'

>>> chr(224).encode("latin1")
b'\xc3\xa0'

>>> chr(224).encode("utf-8")
b'\xc3\xa0'

>>> bytes(chr(224), "ascii")
b'\xc3\xa0'

>>> bytes(chr(224), "latin1")
b'\xc3\xa0'

>>> bytes(chr(224), "utf-8")
b'\xc3\xa0'

Note: at the REPL, with Windows Teraterm, I cannot type accented letters. So I use chr().

It seems to me, at least on the esp8266, the only codec supported is utf-8.
Am I missing something?

[dlech]

You are not missing anything. MicroPython only supports UTF-8.

[peterhinch]

As documented here.

[mattytrentini]

Yes, as @dlech and @peterhinch have mentioned, the only supported encoding is UTF-8.

Just to explain why you needed to use chr; the MicroPython REPL doesn't support unicode - see #2789 for details. To clarify, the MicroPython interpreter understands unicode just fine - but the REPL currently processes data character-by-character which fails for unicode. You can use chr or you can use the paste buffer (Ctrl+E) at the REPL. The paste buffer works because the whole text block is sent to the interpreter.

[massimosala]

Thanks to all