> Which sadly have "in-place" semantics rather than function semantics, > > so you have to say: > > utf8_encode($encoded = $str); > > rather than LISP-ish: > > $encoded = utf8_encode($str); Because we made up the Encode interface out from thin air nothing is stopping us from either changing or extending it. It's not an interface set in stone, yet (5.7 doesn't count). If anybody has doubts or suggestions about the interface, now is the time to change it. -- $jhi++; # http://www.iki.fi/jhi/ # There is this special biologist word we use for 'stable'. # It is 'dead'. -- Jack Cohen