[Python-3000] Support for PEP 3131

[James Y Knight]

On May 25, 2007, at 7:33 AM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

>> Adding baroque command line options for users of other languages to
>> do some useless verification at import time is not an acceptable
>> answer. It'd be better to just reject the PEP entirely.
>
> Speaking of exaggeration ....

I am serious. I fully support python having unicode identifier  
support. But I believe it would be far worse for Python to have  
complicated identifier syntax configuration via command line options  
or auxilliary files than to stay restricted to ASCII.

If the identifier syntax is changed to include unicode, all python  
modules are still usable everywhere. Once you start going down the  
road of configurable syntax (worse: globally configurable syntax),  
there will be a "second class" of python modules that won't work on  
some systems without extra pain.

I'm listening to all these proposals for options, and it's just  
getting *worse and worse*.

It started with a simple "-U", grew into a "-U <language>", grew into  
a 'pyidchar.txt' file with a list of character ranges, and now that  
pyidchar.txt file is going to have separate sections based on module  
name? Sorry, but are you !@# kidding me?!?

James