A very minor inconsistency -- when I call unicode()
with an encoding that Python doesn't know about, it
usually returns a lookup error (e.g LookupError:
unknown encoding: utf99). But when the encoding begins
with a dot (ASCII 0x2e), Python instead gives a
ValueError: Empty module name. It is certainly correct
in raising an error, but it should raise a lookup
error, not a value error.

I've recreated this under Python 2.4.1/FreeBSD 6.0 and
2.3/OS X. See attachment for recreation steps.