[Python-3000] Support for PEP 3131 - discussion on python zope users group

[Guido van Rossum]

On 5/16/07, Collin Winter <collinw at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/15/07, Guillaume Proux <gproux+py3000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Just to let you know that a discussion on japanese python users group
> > is going on regarding this issue.
> >
> > Most people feel like the PEP3131 would be a welcome addition.
> > -> some people point out the fact that special characters like the
> > greek letters would be great for all kind of  maths calculation.
> > -> Many people think that this would enable them to make their own DSL
>
> Oooh, and we could use actual lambdas instead of the lambda keyword. </sarcasm>

Calm down, Collin. You know full well that that is not in the PEP and
if it were I'd be the first to reject it.

> So now we've made the jump from "help (some) international users" to
> "I want to use unicode characters just for the hell of it".

Down that road lies Perl 6. We need to give the world a sane alternative.

> > -> unittest - very useful to give a better overview of the result of
> > unit test. People pointed us at a Visual C# MVP tutorial
> >   http://www.atmarkit.co.jp/fdotnet/nagile/nagile02/nagile02_03.html
>
> I don't know what "a better overview of the result of unit test"
> means. Also, the linked page is in Japanese.

I've just ignored the pages in Japanese, except as proof that there
*are* people out there who like to discuss programming in their native
language which isn't English. I say more power to them.

Just to clarify my position to those who might think I have gone soft:
the standard library (with the exception of test modules specifically
aimed at testing this feature) should continue to use ASCII
exclusively for identifiers, English exclusively for comments and
messages, and should limit the use of non-ASCII characters in comments
and string literals to the names of contributors. Where names are
written using an alphabet that is not the Latin alphabet, a Latin
translation should be given alongside. I'd like to see this added to
both PEP 3131 and, for good measure, to PEP 8, the style guide (which
ought to be self-contained, and has a wider applicability than just
the standard library).

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)