[Python-Dev] unicode imports

[Guido van Rossum]

On 6/16/06, Kristján V. Jónsson <kristjan at ccpgames.com> wrote:
> Although python has had full unicode support for filenames for a long time
> on selected platforms (e.g. Windows), there is one glaring deficiency:  It
> cannot import from paths containing unicode.  I´ve tried creating folders
> with chinese characters and adding them to path, to no avail.

I don't know exactly where this discussion is heading at this point,
but I think it's clear that there's a real (though -- yet -- rare)
problem, for which currently only ugly work-arounds exist. I'm not
convinced that it occurs on other platforms than Windows -- everyone
else seems to use UTF-8 for pathnames, while Windows is stuck with
code pages and other crap, and the only reasaonably way to access
Unicode pathnames is via the Windows-specific Unicode API (which is
why import is the last place where this isn't easily solved, as the
import machinery is completely 8-bit-based).

Has it been determined yet whether the DOS 8+3 filename cannot be used
as a workaround?

Perhaps it would be good enough to wait for Py3k? That will have pure
Unicode strings and the import machinery will be completely rewritten
anyway. (And I wouldn't be surprised if that rewrite were to use pure
Python code.) Py3k will be released later than Python 2.6, but most
likely before 2.7.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)