[Python-Dev] Minidom and Unicode

Paul Prescod paul@prescod.net
Mon, 03 Jul 2000 13:38:26 -0500


Fredrik Lundh wrote:
> 
> ...
>
> exactly.  this is the whole point: __repr__ is a debug tool,
> and therefore it must work in all platforms, for all strings.

As a debugging tool, it would probably help rather than hurt things to
have repr be consistent on all platforms. If it is going to do a
conversion, I vote for unicode-escape everywhere.

> on the other hand, if we can change repr/str, this is a non-
> issue.  maybe someone could tell me exactly what code we'll
> break if we do that change?

I agree that we want to move to a world where unicode strings and 8-bit
strings are accepted equally throughout Python. We do need some
information about whether moving there quickly will break code or not.
We need to know what Idle, PythonWin, Zope and other such environments
do with the results of repr.

-- 
 Paul Prescod - Not encumbered by corporate consensus
The calculus and the rich body of mathematical analysis to which it 
gave rise made modern science possible, but it was the algorithm that 
made the modern world possible.
	- The Advent of the Algorithm (pending), by David Berlinski