[Python-3000] Support for PEP 3131

[Guido van Rossum]

As I mentioned before, I don't expect either of these will be much of
a concern. I guess tools like pylint could optionally warn if
non-ascii characters are used.

On 5/16/07, Jim Jewett <jimjjewett at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/13/07, Jason Orendorff <jason.orendorff at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I think the gesture alone is worth it, even if no one ever used the
> > feature productively.  But people will.  The cost to python-dev is low,
> > and the cost to English-speaking users is very likely zero.
>
> > What am I missing?
>
> Additional costs:
>
> (1)  Security concerns.
>
> Offhand, I'm not sure how to exploit it, but I could imagine scenarios, such as
>
>     if var<limit:
>
> where "var<limit" turned out to be an identifier (using a character
> that looked like "<") rather than a comparison.
>
> (2)  Obscure bugs.
>
> I have seen code that did the wrong thing because a method override
> (or global variable name) was misspelled.  You can argue that it was
> sloppy code, but that sort of thing would be more common when the
> programmer couldn't tell the difference visually.  (Just as today's
> typos are more likely to involve "0" and "O" than "T" and "5")
>
> Guillaume has pointed out that people whose native language isn't
> written in Latin characters already have this problem, but it is a
> problem they already learn to deal with as part of learning to
> program.
>
> -jJ
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-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)