[Python-Dev] Re: PEP 263 - Defining Python Source Code Encodings

[Martin v. Loewis]

Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> writes:

> Well, for one, not everybody has an easy way to edit Unicode files.  I
> expect I'd have to spend half a day downloading new stuff before I
> could.

If the PEP is implemented, IDLE will be able to honor the encoding
declarations. As a side effect, this will allow you to edit UTF-8
files in IDLE.

Allowing arbitrary Unicode in identifiers is no challenge, either,
except that __dict__ dictionaries may suddenly find Unicode as keys.
I'm not sure what other implications this would have, so it definitely
is a separate issue.

Another issue with allowing Unicode is that a good definition of
"letter" must be given (it clearly should not depend on the
locale). The Unicode consortium gives guidelines, but those depend on
the Unicode version.

Regards,
Martin