[Python-Dev] Shouldn't I be able to print Unicode objects?

[Tim Peters]

[M.-A. Lemburg]
> Wasn't me for sure... even in the Unicode age, I believe that
> Python source code should maintain readability by not allowing
> all alpha(numeric) characters for use in identifiers (there are
> lots of them in Unicode).
>
> Shouldn't we fix the tokenizer to explicitely check for 'a'...'z'
> and 'A'...'Z' ?! (same for digits) ?!

That's certain to break code, and it's certain that some of those whose code
gets broken would scream very loudly about it.  OTOH, nobody would come to
its defense with a hearty "whew!  I'm so glad *that* hole finally got
plugged!".  I'm sure it would cause less trouble to take away <> as an
alternative spelling of != (except that Barry is actually close enough to
strangle Guido a few days each week <wink>).  Is it worth the hassle?  I
don't know, but I'd *guess* Guido would rather endure the complaints for
something more substantial (like, say, breaking 10 lines of an expert's
obscure code that relies on int() being a builtin instead of a class
<wink>).