UnicodeEncodeError on help(polar)

[Goyo]

Ubuntu 10.10
python-matplotlib (0.99.3-1ubuntu1)

UnicodeEncodeError is raised when help on matplotlib.projections.polar is requested.

$python
Python 2.6.6 (r266:84292, Sep 15 2010, 16:22:56)
[GCC 4.4.5] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import matplotlib.projections.polar as polar
>>> help(polar)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site.py", line 432, in __call__
    return pydoc.help(*args, **kwds)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/pydoc.py", line 1730, in __call__
    self.help(request)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/pydoc.py", line 1777, in help
    else: doc(request, 'Help on %s:')
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/pydoc.py", line 1515, in doc
    pager(render_doc(thing, title, forceload))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/pydoc.py", line 1510, in render_doc
    return title % desc + '\n\n' + text.document(object, name)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/pydoc.py", line 330, in document
    if inspect.ismodule(object): return self.docmodule(*args)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/pydoc.py", line 1095, in docmodule
    contents.append(self.document(value, key, name))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/pydoc.py", line 331, in document
    if inspect.isclass(object): return self.docclass(*args)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/pydoc.py", line 1227, in docclass
    lambda t: t[1] == 'data')
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/pydoc.py", line 1193, in spilldata
    name, mod, maxlen=70, doc=doc) + '\n')
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/pydoc.py", line 1313, in docother
    line += '\n' + self.indent(str(doc))
UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\xb0' in position 116: ordinal not in range(128)

[Jouni K. Seppänen (jks)]

Confirmed on matplotlib svn trunk.

[Mike Droettboom (mdboom)]

Fixed upstream in SVN r8816 with the attached patch.

[Mike Droettboom (mdboom)]

Fixed upstream in SVN r8816 with the attached patch.

[Krzysztof Klimonda (kklimonda)]

The patch looks fine but I can't even build the source package, as python-dbg crashes for some reason.

[Artur Rona (ari-tczew)]

I'll take this one. ACKed by Krzysztof Klimonda.

[Artur Rona (ari-tczew)]

Thank you for your contribution!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package matplotlib - 0.99.3-1ubuntu3

---------------
matplotlib (0.99.3-1ubuntu3) natty; urgency=low

  [ Mike Droettboom ]
  * debian/patches/40_UnicodeEncodeError.patch: Remove unicode from docstrings
    since it doesn't play well with __builtin__.help(). (LP: #685710)
 -- Artur Rona <email address hidden> Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:24:28 +0200