[Python-Dev] New Py_UNICODE doc

[Nicholas Bastin]

On May 7, 2005, at 5:09 PM, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:

> However, I don't understand all the excitement
> about Py_UNICODE: if you don't like the way this Python
> typedef works, you are free to interface to Python using
> any of the supported encodings using PyUnicode_Encode()
> and PyUnicode_Decode(). I'm sure you'll find one that
> fits your needs and if not, you can even write your
> own codec and register it with Python, e.g. UTF-32
> which we currently don't support ;-)

My concerns about Py_UNICODE are completely separate from my 
frustration that the documentation is wrong about this type.  It is 
much more important that the documentation be correct, first, and then 
we can discuss the reasons why it can be one of two values, rather than 
just a uniform value across all python implementations.  This makes 
distributing binary extension modules hard.  It has become clear to me 
that no one on this list gives a *%&^ about people attempting to 
distribute binary extension modules, or they would have cared about 
this problem, so I'll just drop that point.

However, somehow, what keeps getting lost in the mix is that 
--enable-unicode=ucs2 is a lie, and we should change what this 
configure option says.  Martin seems to disagree with me, for reasons 
that I don't understand.  I would be fine with calling the option 
utf16, or just 2 and 4, but not ucs2, as that means things that Python 
doesn't intend it to mean.

--
Nick