[Python-Dev] Python's Unicode width default (New Py_UNICODE doc)

["Martin v. Löwis"]

M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> I'm not breaking anything, I'm just correcting the
> way things have to be configured in an effort to
> bring back the cross-platforma configure default.

Your proposed change will break the build of Python
on Redhat/Fedora systems.

> I'm talking about the *configure* default, not the
> default installation you find on any particular
> platform (this remains a platform decision to be made
> by the packagers).

Why is it good to have such a default? Why is that
so good that its better than having Tkinter work
by default?

> The main point is that we can no longer tell users:
> if you run configure without any further options,
> you will get a UCS2 build of Python.

It's not a matter of telling the users "no longer".
"We" currently don't tell that in any documentation;
if you had been telling that users, you were wrong.

./configure --help says that the default for
--enable-unicode is "yes".

> I want to restore this fact which was true before
> Jeff's patch was applied.

I understand that you want that. I'm opposed.

> Telling users to look at the configure script printout
> to determine whether they have just built a UCS2
> or UCS4 is just not right given its implications.

Right. We should tell them what the procedure is that
is used.

> It will continue to work - the only change, if any,
> is to add --enable-unicode=tcl or --enable-unicode=ucs4
> (if you know that TCL uses UCS4) to your configure
> setup. The --enable-unicode=ucs4 configure setting
> is part of RedHat and SuSE already, so there won't
> be any changes necessary.

Yes, but users of these systems need to adjust.

Regards,
Martin