in reply to Re: HTML parsing module handles known and unknown encoding
in thread HTML parsing module handles known and unknown encoding
HTML parsers should expect decoded documents since the encoding is not specified in the document itself.
Indeed, if you know the encoding of the document, from the HTTP header or somewhere else, then you should decode the HTML using that, so the HTML parser should accept such a decoded string. However, in the real world, you'll often find that HTML documents are served over HTTP where the HTTP headers don't tell the encoding of the document. In that case, you'll need a way to find the encoding from the document itself. A HTML parser should support both of these cases.
Update: ikegami warns me that he writes in the post that LWP can find the encoding from the meta tag. I'll definitely look at this, for even if I don't use LWP to retrieve the document through HTTP, I can probably ask it to find the meta tag (LWP interface is usually quite nice in such things) or at the very least I can look at the implementation. Thank you for the hint.