[Python-ideas] Proposal for default character representation

[Brendan Barnwell]

On 2016-10-12 18:56, Mikhail V wrote:
> Please don't mix the readability and personal habit, which previuos
> repliers seems to do as well. Those two things has nothing
> to do with each other.

	You keep saying this, but it's quite incorrect.  The usage of decimal 
notation is itself just a convention, and the only reason it's easy for 
you (and for many other people) is because you're used to it.  If you 
had grown up using only hexadecimal or binary, you would find decimal 
awkward.  There is nothing objectively better about base 10 than any 
other place-value numbering system.  Decimal is just a habit.

	Now, it's true that base-10 is at this point effectively universal 
across human societies, and that gives it a certain claim to primacy. 
But base-16 (along with base 2) is also quite common in computing 
contexts.  Saying we should dump hex notation because everyone 
understands decimal is like saying that all signs in Prague should only 
be printed in English because there are more English speakers in the 
entire world than Czech speakers.  But that ignores the fact that there 
are more Czech speakers *in Prague*.  Likewise, decimal may be more 
common as an overall numerical notation, but when it comes to referring 
to Unicode code points, hexadecimal is far and away more common.

	Just look at the Wikipedia page for Unicode, which says: "Normally a 
Unicode code point is referred to by writing "U+" followed by its 
hexadecimal number."  That's it.  You'll find the same thing on 
unicode.org.  The unicode code point is hardly even a number in the 
usual sense; it's just a label that identifies the character.  If you 
have an issue with using hex to represent unicode code points, your 
issue goes way beyond Python, and you need to take it up with the 
Unicode consortium.  (Good luck with that.)

-- 
Brendan Barnwell
"Do not follow where the path may lead.  Go, instead, where there is no 
path, and leave a trail."
    --author unknown