guido van rossum hoaufpythonorg wed apr 16 2008 1020 pm greg ewing wrote alex martelli wrote disagree always recommend using r display error message log entry etc string may error debugging messages yes output produced normal course operation file found consider latter category user typed wrong file name still string displayed respectfully disagree control characters string definitely escaped regarding printable characters outside ascii range see post another thread somehow nearly everybody appears missed py3k propose pass printable unicode characters unchanged repr stdoutstderr set error attribute backslashreplace encoding ascii outofrange characters printed uxxxx rather raising exception printing said please follow post another reason use r someone manages include n filename log message might spread across two lines possibly confusing log parsers even providing ways hide illegal activities log scanners guido van rossum home page httpwwwpythonorgguido _______________________________________________ python3000 mailing list smsbmo9552pythonorg httpmailpythonorgmailmanlistinfopython3000 unsubscribe httpmailpythonorgmailmanoptionspython3000python300040tangomucom thu 07 aug 2008 115714 0700 python3000 displaying strings containing unicode escapes interactive prompt