[Python-Dev] Support for "wide" Unicode characters

[Michael Hudson]

Paul Prescod <paulp@ActiveState.com> writes:

> "M.-A. Lemburg" wrote:
> > I'd suggest not to use the term character in this PEP at all;
> > this is also what Mark Davis recommends in his paper on Unicode.
> 
> That's fine, but Python does have a concept of character and I'm going
> to use the term character for discussing these.

As a Unicode Idiot (tm) can I please beg you to reconsider?  There are
so many possible meanings for "character" that I really think it's
best to avoid the word altogether.  Call Python characters "length 1
strings" or even "length 1 Python strings".

[...]
> > Please note that you are mixing terms: you don't construct
> > characters, you construct code points. Whether the concatenation
> > of these code points makes a valid Unicode character string
> > is an issue which applications and codecs have to decide.
> 
> unichr() does not construct code points. It constructs 1-char Python
> Unicode strings

This is what I think you should be saying.

> ...also known as Python Unicode characters.

Which I'm suggesting you forget!

Cheers,
M.

-- 
  I'm a keen cyclist and I stop at red lights.  Those who don't need
  hitting with a great big slapping machine.
                                           -- Colin Davidson, cam.misc