--- a/utils.py	Tue Feb 17 22:45:55 2009 +0100
+++ b/utils.py	Tue Feb 17 22:59:14 2009 +0100
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 """
 __docformat__ = "restructuredtext en"
 
+import locale
 from md5 import md5
 from time import time
 from random import randint, seed
@@ -42,6 +43,16 @@
             yield date
         date += incr
 
+def ustrftime(date, fmt='%Y-%m-%d'):
+    """like strftime, but returns a unicode string instead of an encoded
+    string which may be problematic with localized date.
+    
+    encoding is guessed by locale.getpreferredencoding()
+    """
+    # date format may depend on the locale
+    encoding = locale.getpreferredencoding(do_setlocale=False) or 'UTF-8'
+    return unicode(date.strftime(fmt), encoding)
+
 
 def dump_class(cls, clsname):
     """create copy of a class by creating an empty class inheriting