[Python-Dev] Unicode support in getargs.c

[Jack Jansen]

I'm going to jump out of this discussion for a while. Martin and Mark have 
a completely different view on Unicode than I do, apparently, and I think 
I should first try and see if I can use the current implementation.

For the record: my view of Unicode is really "ascii done right", i.e. a 
datatype that allows you to get richer characters than what 1960s ascii 
gives you. For this it should be as backward-compatible as possible, i.e. 
if some API expects a unicode filename and I pass "a.out" it should 
interpret it as u"a.out". All the converting to different charsets is 
icing on the cake, the number one priority should be that unicode is as 
compatible as possible with the 8-bit convention used on the platform 
(whatever it may be). No, make that the number 2 priority: the number one 
pritority is compatibility with 7-bit ascii. Using Python StringObjects as 
binary buffers is also far less common than using StringObjects to store 
plain old strings, so if either of these uses bites the other it's the 
binary buffer that needs to suffer. UnicodeObjects and StringObjects 
should behave pretty orthogonal to how FloatObjects and IntObjects behave.

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