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

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Guido van Rossum wrote:
>>>>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.
>>>
>>>I'd just use the isalpha() method of Unicode string objects.
>>
>>That might vary across platforms (which I consider a bug) and across
>>Python releases.
> 
> Really?  I thought Unicode's isalpha() was built on the Unicode text
> database?

It is, but on some platforms, the user can configure Python to use
the C lib's versions instead of the Python provided ones
(--with-ctype-functions).

Also note that the Unicode database in Python was created
from Unicode 3.0. Unicode 3.1 adds lots more characters and
also changed a few character properties.

I'd consider the case academic, though... I am not aware of any
editor which can display the full Unicode 3.1 character set.
The most complete font currently around seems to be the MS font
for Arial (both cover Unicode 2.0):

    http://www.unicode.org/unicode/onlinedat/products.html

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH
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