Austin Ziegler wrote:
> This is, in fact, far
> *superior* to what Java and Python do -- which are limited to UTF-8
> string representations (AFAIK). 

Java has /always/ used UTF-16 internally, and currently has the ability 
to read and write US-ASCII, ISO-8859-1, UTF-8, UTF-16BE (big-endian) 
UTF-16LE (little-endian), and UTF-16 (byte-order marked) at a minimum, 
plus whatever other encodings the implementor chooses to add. (Sun Java 
for Windows includes a total of 148.)

-- 
John W. Kennedy
"Never try to take over the international economy based on a radical 
feminist agenda if you're not sure your leader isn't a transvestite."
   -- David Misch:  "She-Spies", "While You Were Out"