Can we consider getting rid of the SQL_ASCII server-side "encoding"? I
don't see any good use for it, and it's often a support annoyance, and
it leaves warts all over the code. This would presumably be a
multi-release effort.
As a first step in accommodating users who have existing SQL_ASCII
databases, we could change SQL_ASCII into a real encoding with
conversion routines to all other encodings that only convert 7-bit ASCII
characters. That way, users who use SQL_ASCII as real ASCII or don't
care could continue to use it. Others would be forced to either set
SQL_ASCII as the client encoding or adjust the encoding on the server.
On the client side, the default libpq client "encoding" SQL_ASCII would
be renamed to something like SAME or whatever, so the behavior would
stay the same.
Other ideas? Are there legitimate uses for SQL_ASCII?