[Python-3000] Support for PEP 3131

[Steve Howell]

--- "Martin v. Löwis" <martin at v.loewis.de> wrote:
> 
> -2. Any solution found must also accommodate users
> which are unaware
> of the security issue, and just want to use their
> native language
> for identifiers. So requiring them to change their
> environment or
> pass additional command line parameters is
> unacceptable.

Let me say first that I'm 100% behind PEP 3131, and
that I agree with you with that many of the objections
to the PEP are kind of FUDish.

Still, I have a hard time accepting your premise that
even ordinary, non-security-aware programmers are so
deterred by changing their environment.  

In almost every programming situation I've been in,
I've had to deal with environmental issues, even
though my character set of choice has never been the
primary issue.

When I programmed in C, I had to learn my way around
makefiles, figure out LD_LIBRARY_PATH, etc.

When I programmed in Perl, I had to change my shebangs
when I moved from one Unix box to another, due to the
way sys admins installed Perl.

When I programmed in Java, I had to learn how .jar
files worked.

Now that I program in Python, I still have to fuss
with PYTHONPATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH (we use C
extensions) when I go between version 20 (installed in
the field), version 21 (installed in the text box),
and shDevBranch (code I'm working on now).

Also in Python, the concept of a wrapper shell script
is just part of a programmer's life.  I have a program
that needs to run as user "operator," and I can't
sudo-enable Python itself (big security hole), so I
write a one-line sudo script that just calls safe.py,
and I sudo enable it.

 
> 
> Please *do* consider the needs of the people who
> want to actively
> use the feature as well. Otherwise, you have no
> chance of understanding
> what will make everyone happy.
> 

I think there are things that can be done here, even
if we make Python's default mode to be ascii-pure. 
Regional distros can set the environment
appropriately.  Python error messages about non-ascii
characters can suggest how to enable the -U flag.  The
Tokyo Python User's Group can educate programmers,
etc.




 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Don't pick lemons.
See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos.
http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html