[Python-3000] PEP 3108 - String representation in Python 3000

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

M.-A. Lemburg writes:
 > This is all very nice, but if that means that the whole Unicode
 > database has to be loaded every time the interpreter starts up

Ouch.

 > BTW, I'm sure it's possible to break down the above into a set of
 > ranges and switch cases that are easy to test without having to
 > lookup code points in the database. Even if you do end up using
 > the database, it should only be imported if the repr() really
 > does not need to lookup code points outside the Latin-1 range.

You mean, "really does need to look up", right?

Would it be too disgusting to have a simple range-based repr() as a
builtin, and replace it with a lookup-based repr() defined in the
Unicode database?