It defines the following functions:
-.. function:: encode(obj, encoding='utf-8', errors='strict')
+.. function:: encode(obj, [encoding[, errors]])
- Encodes *obj* using the codec registered for *encoding*.
+ Encodes *obj* using the codec registered for *encoding*. The default
+ encoding is ``utf-8``.
*Errors* may be given to set the desired error handling scheme. The
default error handler is ``strict`` meaning that encoding errors raise
:exc:`UnicodeEncodeError`). Refer to :ref:`codec-base-classes` for more
information on codec error handling.
-.. function:: decode(obj, encoding='utf-8', errors='strict')
+.. function:: decode(obj, [encoding[, errors]])
- Decodes *obj* using the codec registered for *encoding*.
+ Decodes *obj* using the codec registered for *encoding*. The default
+ encoding is ``utf-8``.
*Errors* may be given to set the desired error handling scheme. The
default error handler is ``strict`` meaning that decoding errors raise