René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"Prepare for BOM-less UTF-8 default character encoding with respect to $OutputEncoding and console code page","articleBody":"BOM-less UTF-8 character encoding [is coming as the default for PowerShell Core on all platforms](https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell-RFC/issues/71#issuecomment-306614751).\r\n\r\nTwo attendant changes are required:\r\n\r\n* Preference variable `$OutputEncoding`, which currently defaults to ASCII, must default to `[System.Text.UTF8Encoding]::new()` (UTF-8 with no BOM), or, perhaps preferably, _not_ predefine this variable and default to that encoding (the internally used default) in its absence.\r\n\r\n  * `$OutputEncoding` tells PowerShell what character encoding to use when sending output _to_ external utilities.\r\n\r\n* Console / terminal character encoding:\r\n\r\n  * On _Windows_, `[Console]::InputEncoding` and `[Console]::OutputEncoding` must both be set to `[System.Text.UTF8Encoding]::new()`, which is the equivalent of configuring a console window to use code page `65001` (UTF-8) or executing `chcp 65001` _before_ PowerShell is launched.\r\n\r\n    * `[Console]::OutputEncoding` tells PowerShell what encoding to assume when reading output _from_ external utilities.\r\n\r\n    * On Windows, the Start Menu shortcut that is created during installation should be preconfigured to open a console window with code page `65001`.\r\n\r\n      * Conceivably, PowerShell should _automatically_ switch to the `65001` code page in case it is launched from a console window with a different active code page (such as from `cmd.exe`), though it is worth noting that this change in encoding by default remains in effect until the window is closed (even after exiting PowerShell and returning to `cmd.exe`; perhaps a warning could be issued on startup).\r\n\r\n  * On _Unix_ platforms with UTF-8-based locales, which are the norm these days, no action is required.\r\n\r\n     * To be determined: How should the rare event of being invoked from a terminal with a different active character encoding be handled? Changing the encoding on the fly, as on Windows, is not guaranteed to work. Perhaps a warning on startup is sufficient.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\nBefore the above is implemented, the **interim workaround** to make a console window / terminal use UTF-8 consistently is the following command:\r\n\r\n```powershell\r\n$OutputEncoding = [console]::InputEncoding = [console]::OutputEncoding = [System.Text.UTF8Encoding]::new()\r\n\r\n```\r\n\r\nEnvironment data\r\n----------------\r\n\r\n```powershell\r\nPowerShell Core v6.0.0-beta.6\r\n```\r\n","author":{"url":"https://github.com/mklement0","@type":"Person","name":"mklement0"},"datePublished":"2017-08-27T03:32:38.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":16},"url":"https://github.com/4681/PowerShell/issues/4681"}