[Python-3000] Support for PEP 3131

[Jim Jewett]

On 5/25/07, Guillaume Proux <gproux+py3000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/26/07, Jim Jewett <jimjjewett at gmail.com> wrote:

> > You're missing "here is this neat code from sourceforge", or "Here is
> > something I cut-and-pasted from ASPN".  If those use something outside
> > of ASCII, that's fine -- so long as they tell you about it.

> > If you didn't realize it was using non-ASCII (or even that it could),
> > and the author didn't warn you -- then that is an appropriate time for
> > the interpreter to warn you that things aren't as you expect.

> I fail to see your point. Why should the interpreter warn you?

I see some of the confusion now; as James Knight pointed out, some
people already treat python as binary code, and just run without
reading -- but some people don't.

I do read (or at least skim) other people's code before running it.
If nothing else, I want to see whether it has much chance of solving
my actual problem.  By the time I've finished reading it, I have a
fairly good idea what it is doing.  That's less true if I can't read
everything, but at least I know which parts to worry about.

Arbitrary unicode identifier opens up the possibility of code that
*looks* like ASCII, but isn't -- so I don't even realize that I missed
something.

> but if the code you copy off somewhere else does what you need it to
> do... then why do you want to force the author of this code generously
> donated to you to downgrade his expressiveness by having to rewrite
> all his code to reach ascii purity?

I don't mind that he used Sanskrit identifiers; I don't even mind if
he uses Cyrillic identifiers that look like ASCII.

I'll be less likely to use his code, but that is my own problem.  If
his code breaks when retyped ... again, that is mostly my own problem.

What I do mind is if he used identifier characters that look like > or
', and I didn't notice because the rest of the code was ASCII, and
python didn't warn me, because, hey, technically, those lookalikes
*are* letters now.

-jJ