[Python-ideas] Visually confusable unicode characters in identifiers

[Ben Finney]

"Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen at xemacs.org>
writes:

> Ben Finney writes:
>  > Right. So you've solved it for one program only, not the OS
>
> You seem to be under a misconception.  Emacs *is* an OS […]

… all it needs is a good editor? :-)

(I'm claiming permission for that snark because Emacs is my primary
editor.)

>  > I'm saying the OS is the right place to solve it, by installing an
>  > appropriate input method (or whatever each OS calls them).
>
> I doubt very many people used to and fond of LaTeX would agree with
> you, since AFAIK there aren't any OSes providing TeX macros as an
> input method.

I've shown several LaTeX-comfortable people IBus on GNOME and/or KDE
(for GNU+Linux), and they were very glad that it has a LaTeX input
method. So anyone who is fond of LaTeX and has IBus or an equivalent
input method engine on their OS can agree.

> AFAICS it's not available on my Mac.

That's a shame. Maybe some OS vendors don't want to support users
extending the OS functionality? Or maybe your OS does have such a thing
available. I haven't been motivated to look for it.

> While I don't particularly favor it, it may be the best compromise, as
> many people are familiar with it, and many many symbols are available
> with familiar, intuitive names so that non-TeXnical typists can often
> guess them.

Agreed. Which is why I advocate installing such an input method in one's
OS input method engine, so that input method is available for all
applications.

-- 
 \     “I thought I'd begin by reading a poem by Shakespeare, but then |
  `\     I thought ‘Why should I? He never reads any of mine.’” —Spike |
_o__)                                                         Milligan |
Ben Finney