On 10/01/2012 10:51 PM, Guido van Rossum wrote:
On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 1:26 PM, Oscar Benjamin
Non-ascii identifiers have other possible uses. I'll repost the case that started this discussion on python-tutor (attached in case it doesn't display):
Very nice!
''' #!/usr/bin/env python3 # -*- encoding: utf-8 -*-
# Parameters α = 1 β = 0.1 γ = 1.5 δ = 0.075
# Initial conditions xₒ = 10 yₒ = 5 Zₒ = xₒ, yₒ
# Solution parameters tₒ = 0 Δt = 0.001 T = 10
# Lotka-Volterra derivative def f(Z, t): x, y = Z ẋ = x * (α - β*y) ẏ = -y * (γ - δ*x) return ẋ, ẏ
# Accumulate results from Euler stepper tᵢ = tₒ Zᵢ = Zₒ Zₜ, t = [], [] while tᵢ <= tₒ + T: Zₜ.append(Zᵢ) t.append(tᵢ) Zᵢ = [Zᵢⱼ+ Δt*Żᵢⱼ for Zᵢⱼ, Żᵢⱼ in zip(Zᵢ, f(Zᵢ, tᵢ))] tᵢ += Δt
# Output since I don't have plotting libraries in Python 3 print('t', 'x', 'y') for tᵢ, (xᵢ, yᵢ) in zip(t, Zₜ): print(tᵢ, xᵢ, yᵢ) '''
Those examples would be a lot more compelling if there was an acceptable way to input those characters. Maybe we could support some kind of input method that enabled LaTeX style math notation as used by scientists for writing equations in papers?
With the right editor, of course, it's not a problem :) (Emacs has a TeX input method with which I could type this example without problems.) Georg