Message 251560 - Python tracker

The problem is definitely that:
format = PyUnicode_EncodeLocale(format_arg, "surrogateescape");
fails on Windows.

Windows is using strftime, not wcsftime. It's not using wcsftime because of issue 10653.

If I force Windows to use wcsftime, this particular example works:
>>> time.strftime("%d\u200F%A", time.gmtime())
'25\u200fFriday'

I haven't looked at issue 10653 enough to understand if it's still a problem with the new Visual C++. Maybe it is: I only tested with my default US locale.