[Python-Dev] Proposal: from __future__ import unicode_string_literals

["Martin v. Löwis"]

> It's not implementable because the work has to occur in ast.c (see 
> Py_UnicodeFlag).  It can't occur later, because you need to skip the 
> encoding being done in parsestr().  But the __future__ import can only 
> be interpreted after the AST is built, at which time the encoding has 
> already been applied.  

I think it would be possible to check for future statements on the
basis of nodes already. Take a look at how Python 2.3 implemented
future statements (why was that rewritten to use the AST, anyway?).

> As for it not making sense, this is really in the realm of 2to3.  I'm 
> beginning to really believe this statement in PEP 3000:

There is still the original use case of people who don't want to run
2to3 (for whatever reasons - mostly probably subjective ones), and
who would rather run a single code base unmodified. They don't care
that documentation tells them this is impossible, when they feel they
are so close to making it possible.

Regards,
Martin