[Python-ideas] Proposal for default character representation

[Ryan Gonzalez]

On Oct 12, 2016 4:33 PM, "Mikhail V" <mikhailwas at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> *snip*
>
> PROPOSAL:
> 1. Remove all hex notation from printing functions, typing,
> documention.
> So for printing functions leave the hex as an "option",
> for example for those who feel the need for hex representation,
> which is strange IMO.
> 2. Replace it with decimal notation, in this case e.g:
>
> u'\u0430\u0431\u0432.txt' becomes
> u'\u1072\u1073\u1074.txt'
>
> and similarly for other cases where raw bytes must be printed/inputed
> So to summarize: make the decimal notation standard for all cases.
> I am not going to go deeper, such as what digit amount (leading zeros)
> to use, since it's quite secondary decision.
>

If decimal notation isn't used for parsing, only for printing, it would be
confusing as heck, but using it for both would break a lot of code in
subtle ways (the worst kind of code breakage).

> MOTIVATION:
> 1. Hex notation is hardly readable. It was not designed with readability
> in mind, so for reading it is not appropriate system, at least with the
> current character set, which is a mix of digits and letters (curious who
> was that wize person who invented such a set?).

The Unicode standard.

I agree that hex is hard to read, but the standard uses it to refer to the
code points. It's great to be able to google code points and find the
characters easily, and switching to decimal would screw it up.

And I've never seen someone *need* to figure out the decimal version from
the hex before. It's far more likely to google the hex #.

TL;DR: I think this change would induce a LOT of short-term issues, despite
it being up in the air if there's any long-term gain.

So -1 from me.

> 2. Mixing of two notations (hex and decimal) is a _very_ bad idea,
> I hope no need to explain why.
>

Indeed, you don't. :)

> So that's it, in short.
> Feel free to discuss and comment.
>
> Regards,
> Mikhail
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--
Ryan (ライアン)
[ERROR]: Your autotools build scripts are 200 lines longer than your
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