Python Codec for ITU T.61 Strings

2.0.0 · active · verified Thu Apr 16

t61codec is a Python library that provides a codec for handling ITU T.61 character strings. It allows encoding Python strings into T.61 byte sequences and decoding T.61 byte sequences back into Python strings. The current version is 2.0.0 and it maintains a semantic versioning release cadence, though updates are infrequent.

Common errors

```
LookupError: unknown encoding: t.61
```
cause The `t61codec` library has not been registered with Python's `codecs` module.

fix Add `t61codec.register()` at the beginning of your script or before attempting to use the 't.61' encoding.
```
UnicodeEncodeError: 't.61' codec can't encode character '\u20ac' in position X: character maps to <undefined>
```
cause The input string contains a Unicode character (e.g., Euro sign '€') that is not supported by the ITU T.61 encoding.

fix Filter out or replace unsupported characters before encoding, or specify an error handler like `errors='replace'` or `errors='ignore'` in the `encode` call (e.g., `codecs.encode(my_string, 't.61', errors='replace')`).

Warnings

gotcha The `t.61` codec must be explicitly registered with Python's `codecs` registry before it can be used. Forgetting to call `t61codec.register()` will result in a `LookupError` when trying to use the 't.61' encoding.
Fix: Always call `t61codec.register()` once at the start of your application or before the first use of the 't.61' encoding.
gotcha ITU T.61 is an 8-bit encoding. While it can represent some non-ASCII characters, it has a limited character set compared to modern encodings like UTF-8. Attempting to encode characters not supported by T.61 will raise a `UnicodeEncodeError`.
Fix: Ensure that input strings only contain characters representable in T.61 or implement appropriate error handling (e.g., `'replace'`, `'ignore'`) when encoding.

Install

pip install t61codec Install latest version

Imports

t61codec
wrong:
```
import codecs
codecs.encode('hello', 't.61')
```
correct:
```
import t61codec
t61codec.register()
```
The 't.61' codec is not available by default in the standard 'codecs' module until `t61codec.register()` is explicitly called.

Quickstart

This quickstart demonstrates how to register the t61codec and then use Python's built-in `codecs` module to encode and decode strings using the 't.61' encoding.

import t61codec
import codecs

t61codec.register()

# Encode a Python string to T.61 bytes
python_string = "Hello, World!"
t61_bytes = codecs.encode(python_string, 't.61')
print(f"Encoded: {t61_bytes!r}")

# Decode T.61 bytes back to a Python string
decoded_string = codecs.decode(t61_bytes, 't.61')
print(f"Decoded: {decoded_string}")

# Example with characters that might be specific to T.61 (if applicable)
# For simplicity, using basic ASCII characters as T.61 is an 8-bit encoding
# For specific non-ASCII T.61 characters, consult ITU-T T.61 standard.

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