Stephen J. Turnbull:
Here's why: '''print "%d" % some_integer''' doesn't now, and never will (unless Kristan gets his Python 2.8<wink>), produce Arabic or Han numerals. Not in any language I know of, not in Microsoft Excel, and definitely not in Python 2.
While I don't have Excel to test with, OpenOffice.org Calc will display in Arabic or Han numerals using the NatNum format codes. http://www.scintilla.org/ArabicNumbers.png
Ditto Arabic, I would imagine; ISO 8859/6 (aka Latin/Arabic) does not contain the Arabic digits that have been presented here earlier AFAICT. Note that there's plenty of space for them in that code table (eg, 0xB0-0xB9 is empty). Apparently nobody *ever* thought it was useful to have them!
DOS code page 864 does use 0xB0-0xB9 for ٠ .. ٩. http://www.ascii.ca/cp864.htm Neil