diff --git a/doc/ChangeLog b/doc/ChangeLog
index 9b2c79a..0903418 100644
--- a/doc/ChangeLog
+++ b/doc/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2007-04-16 Jörgen Stenarson  <jorgen.stenarson -at- bostream.nu>
+	* doctest imports pdb which imports readline, this means readline
+	  can be imported when a dummy object has replaced stdout. The dummy 
+	  might miss the encoding property. We now assume stdout.encoding=="ascii" 
+	  in this case.
+	
 2007-04-14 Jörgen Stenarson  <jorgen.stenarson -at- bostream.nu>
 	* Changing binding for control-delete to forward_delete_word, adding tests to verify binding
 	
diff --git a/pyreadline/console/console.py b/pyreadline/console/console.py
index 562dc21..9e88c36 100644
--- a/pyreadline/console/console.py
+++ b/pyreadline/console/console.py
@@ -115,7 +115,13 @@ class CONSOLE_CURSOR_INFO(Structure):
     _fields_ = [("dwSize", c_int),
                 ("bVisible", c_byte)]
 
-consolecodepage=sys.stdout.encoding
+
+try:
+    consolecodepage=sys.stdout.encoding
+except AttributeError:        #This error occurs when pdb imports readline and doctest has replaced 
+                              #stdout with stdout collector
+    consolecodepage="ascii"   #assume ascii codepage
+    
 def ensure_text(text):
     """helper to ensure that text passed to WriteConsoleA is ascii"""
     if isinstance(text, unicode):