[Python-Dev] Unicode Imports

[Guido van Rossum]

On 9/8/06, Steve Holden <steve at holdenweb.com> wrote:
> Anthony Baxter wrote:
> > On Friday 08 September 2006 19:19, Steve Holden wrote:
> >
> >>But it *is* a desirable, albeit new, feature, so I'm surprised that you
> >>don't appear to perceive it as such for a downstream release.
> >
> >
> > Point releases (2.x.1 and suchlike) are absolutely not for new features.
> > They're for bugfixes, only. It's possible that this could be considered a
> > bugfix, but as I said right now I'm dubious.
> >
> OK, in that case I'm going to argue that the current behaviour is buggy.
>
> I suppose your point is that, assuming the patch is correct (and it
> seems the authors are relying on it for production purposes in tens of
> thousands of installations), it doesn't change the behaviour of the
> interpreter in existing cases, and therefore it is providing a new feature.
>
> I don't regard this as the provision of a new feature but as the removal
> of an unnecessary restriction (which I would prefer to call a bug). If
> it was *documented* somewhere that Unicode paths aren't legal I would
> find your arguments more convincing. As things stand new Python users
> would, IMHO, be within their rights to assume that arbitrary directories
> could be added to the path without breakage.
>
> Ultimately, your call, I guess. Would it help if I added "inability to
> import from Unicode directories" as a bug? Or would you prefer to change
> the documentation to state that some directories can't be used as path
> elements <0.3 wink>?

We've all heard the arguments for both sides enough times I think.

IMO it's the call of the release managers. Board members ought to
trust the release managers and not apply undue pressure.

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