[Python-Dev] Proposal: from __future__ import unicode_string_literals

[Jean-Paul Calderone]

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:14:13 +0100, "\"Martin v. Löwis\"" <martin at v.loewis.de> wrote:
>> You are still only seeing this as a case of libraries with a small
>> number of people developing them and making regular well defined
>> releases. That is not how the world I am talking about looks.
>
>Can you give me examples of such software? Are you perhaps talking
>about closed source software?

I'm not sure what software he was talking about.  I can say that for
the work I do on both Twisted and Divmod software, I'd be quite happy
to see this feature.  As either part of a migration path towards 3k
_or_ as a feature entirely on its own merits, this would be very useful
to me.

I'm a bit curious about why Thomas said this sort of thing results in
fragile code.  Twisted has been using __future__ imports for years and
they've never been a problem.  Twisted currently supports Python 2.3
through Python 2.5, and the only thing that's really difficult about
that is subtle changes in library behavior, not syntax.

I'm also curious about why Lennart thinks that this would only be relevant
for large projects with lots of developers making regular releases.  Sure,
I'd use it in that scenario, but that's because it's a subset of "all
development". ;)

Jean-Paul