Current Behaviour The tutorial of Python 3.2.x has an example to set an encoding in a source file: http://docs.python.org/py3k/tutorial/interpreter.html#source-code-encoding It explains to set the following line at the start of the source code: # -*- coding: cp-1252 -*- However when done exactly so, Python raises the following exception: SyntaxError: encoding problem: with BOM The problem seems to be that Python knows Windows codepage 1252 as windows-1252 (its IANA charset name, see http://www.iana.org/assignments/charset-reg/windows-1252 ) or alternatively as cp1252 (without dash) but not as cp-1252 (with dash). As this is an example in the tutorial is particularly problematic, as users might not understand how to do it correctly. This is still the case in the tutorial of Python 3.3 alpha: http://docs.python.org/dev/tutorial/interpreter.html#source-code-encoding Expected Behaviour The tutorial should give a correct example, for example with: # -*- coding: windows-1252 -*- Alternatively a totally other example as for Python 2.7 would be nice too: http://docs.python.org/tutorial/interpreter.html#source-code-encoding Notes: I have tested this with following Python implementations: - Python 3.2.1 (openSUSE 12.1) on Linux - Python 3.2.2 on Windows 7 SP1 64 Bits - Python 3.2.2 on MacOS 10.5.8 (Always on the command line; I have not tested in IDLE.)
Thanks for the detailed bug report. I thought the normalization performed by the codec lookup system would convert 'cp-1252' to 'cp1252' (its “real” name, i.e. the name of the module implementing the codec), but it does not. I’m +1 to removing the hyphen in the example, then. > Python raises the following exception: > SyntaxError: encoding problem: with BOM I reproduced this and it’s surprising. Maybe there is a bug with error reporting here. > Alternatively a totally other example as for Python 2.7 would be nice too This file has seen different changes in 2.7 and 3.2, given that the default encoding is different in 3.x. I’ll check the history and upload a patch here to get your feedback.
Error message was fixed. In all supported versions it is: $ ./python cp_1252broken.py File "cp_1252broken.py", line 1 SyntaxError: encoding problem: cp-1252 But the tutorial still contains non-working example. This is an easy issue, but it was open for long time.
