Hi, thanks, but you may be missing the point...
I would wish to read a simple text (not binary) file, (typically in CSV format).
I do not know what encoding a user may use to create the text file - and most likely neither will the user!
Thus the file may be UTF-8 already, or it may be something else, I just wish to reliably and simply process it whatever the encoding, as was apparently possible with earlier releases.
I have no attachment to force_encoding - merely that it was suggested and it does appear to work, and will happily comply with any preferred alternative.
So, what extra logic is required for anyone and everyone to reliably process any text file, (which might include £ or m[sup:1cfz4sft]2[/sup:1cfz4sft], for example) regardless of how it might be encoded?