[Python-ideas] allow `lambda' to be spelled λ

[Rustom Mody]

On Thursday, July 21, 2016 at 12:51:27 PM UTC+5:30, Chris Angelico wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jul 21, 2016 at 4:26 PM, Rustom Mody <rusto... at gmail.com 
> <javascript:>> wrote:
> > IOW
> > 1. Disallow co-existence of confusables (in identifiers)
> > 2. Identify confusables to a normal form — like case-insensitive 
> comparison
> > and like NKFC
> > 3. Leave the confusables to confuse
> >
> > My choice
> > 1 better than 2 better than 3
>
> So should we disable the lowercase 'l', the uppercase 'I', and the
> digit '1', because they can be confused? What about the confusability
> of "m" and "rn"? O and 0 are similar in some fonts. And case
> insensitivity brings its own problems - is "ss" equivalent to "ß", and
> is "ẞ" equivalent to either? Turkish distinguishes between "i", which
> upper-cases to "İ", and "ı", which upper-cases to "I".
>
> We already have interminable debates about letter similarities across
> scripts. I'm sure everyone agrees that Cyrillic "и" is not the same
> letter as Latin "i", but we have "AАΑ" in three different scripts.
> Should they be considered equivalent? I think not, because in any
> non-trivial context, you'll know whether the program's been written in
> Greek, a Slavic language, or something using the Latin script. But
> maybe you disagree. Okay; are "BВΒ" all to be considered equivalent
> too?  What about "СC"? "XХΧᚷ"? They're visually similar, but they're
> not equivalent in any other way. And if you're going to say things
> should be considered equivalent solely on the basis of visuals, you
> get into a minefield - should U+200B ZERO WIDTH SPACE be completely
> ignored, allowing "AB" to be equivalent to "A\u200bB" as an
> identifier?
>
>
I said 1 better than 2 better than  3
Maybe you also want to add:

Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.

followed by

Errors should never pass silently.

IOW setting out 1 better than 2 better than 3 does not necessarily imply 
its completely achievable
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