[Python-3000] PEP 3131 accepted

[Jim Jewett]

On 5/23/07, Ka-Ping Yee <python at zesty.ca> wrote:
> First: the "Common Objections" section of the PEP is too thin.  I'd
> like the following arguments to be mentioned there for the record:

>     4.  Python programs that reuse other Python modules may come
>         to contain a mix of character sets such that no one can
>         fully read them or properly display them.

4.a

Certain cut-and-paste errors (such as cutting from a word document
that uses "smart quotes") will change from syntax errors to silently
creating new identifiers.

>     5.  Unicode is young and unfinished.  As far as I know there
>         are no truly complete Unicode fonts and there may not be
>         for some time.  Tool support is weak.  The whole computer
>         industry has 40 years of experience working with ASCII
>         for everything, including programming languages; our
>         experience with Unicode security issues and Unicode in
>         programming languages is fairly immature.

5.a  Use of unicode for identifiers is not yet a resolved issue.  The
unicode consortium mostly recommends XID rather than the older ID;
both sets already have "stability characters" and canonicalization
concerns.  It isn't quite clear which marks/letters/scripts to leave
out.  (The recommendations conflict; other than ASCII-only, I'm not
sure I've found one yet that leaves out "letters" indistiguishable
(even in the reference font) from already-meaningful syntax
characters.)

We can make up our own answers, but if we do that... maybe we shouldn't rush.

-jJ