[Python-Dev] Can't compile _tkinter.c with Redhat 9 (post-SF#719880)

[Jeff Hobbs]

> From: martin@v.loewis.de
> Jeff Hobbs writes:
>
> > Can someone explain to me why moving to UCS-4 is a good thing?
>
> Because it simplifies processing of non-BMP characters, as it restores
> the property that you get one Unicode character per string index.
	...
> > While Tcl is agnostic about non-BMP chars (all 2 of them ... ha ha),
> > it does have correct UCS-4 support (not completely though with how
> > RedHat patched it).  This has been discussed before briefly here:
> >
> >
>
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=578030&group_id=10894&atid=
110894
>
> Which of the follow-up messages do you consider reliable information
> in this report? davygrvy comments appear to be irrelevant, as they
> talk about Unicode 3.0, keithp likewise. Your own comment appears to
> talk about possible future changes, instead of the current code.

BTW, I mentioned this because I'm not sure that the reasoning behind
moving to a 32-bit integral type was due to RHs desire to support the
extra chars in Unicode 4 (after all, without shipping fonts to display
them ... what's the point?).  Keith Packard, who submitted the bug
report (RFE really) is one of the major XFree maintainers (err ... I
guess that's xwin now).  In any case, he wanted to allow 32-bit in X
in part for ease of processing, advantages of word alignment, and
other things.

IOW, I'm not really sure that this was all done to support UCS-4
specifically, although that may have been a consideration.

  Jeff Hobbs                     The Tcl Guy
  Senior Developer               http://www.ActiveState.com/