[Python-Dev] GSoC: Replace MS Windows Console with Unicode UI

[Glenn Linderman]

On approximately 3/22/2009 8:48 PM, came the following characters from 
the keyboard of Terry Reedy:
> One of the disappointments of CPython 3.0 on Windows is that the switch 
> to unicode for text (str), coupled with the continued use of a 
> unicode-oblivious (obtuse) user interface (MS 'Command Prompt'), means 
> that print can no longer print all str strings, or all legal Python code 
> (as in a traceback).
> 
> Different people have tried and failed fix this bug by fiddling with 
> 'Command Prompt' configeration.  This would make a useful summer 
> project, though I don't know if it would involve enough coding.  Call 
> the project something like 3.0 Unicode UI Improvement.
> 
> I see two possibilities.
> 
> 1) Find an C-coded open-source C-P replacement whose author will license 
> to PSF and, as needed, modify or integrate it with CPython.
> 
> 2) IDLE does much better but its support seems to still be imcomplete. 
> Upgrade tk/tkinter/IDLE (wherever the problems lie) and make IDLE's 
> shell an alternate UI.
> 
> If Windows (or other OSes) (to be investigated) does not reliably come 
> with a full unicode font (at least current BMP), is there a public 
> domain or open license font that we can include?


One can, of course, set CMD into Latin-1 mode (chcp 1252)... not sure 
how Python reacts to that, as I've only used it with Perl, until I gave 
up on Perl's Unicode support (which someone finally seems to be fixing, 
but then there is CPAN to improve).  But that doesn't solve the font 
problem, nor characters above 255.

One can set CMD into Unicode mode (chcp 65001)... not sure how Python 
reacts to that either.  But even then...

CMD will only use fixed-width fonts, and none of the standard XP ones 
seem to contain all of Unicode.  Not sure if that has improved on Vista 
or 7, as they don't run here.

It _would_ be nice to get this resolved, somehow.


-- 
Glenn -- http://nevcal.com/
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