[Python-ideas] Proposal for default character representation

[Sjoerd Job Postmus]

On Fri, Oct 14, 2016 at 08:05:40AM +0200, Mikhail V wrote:
> Any critics on it? Besides not following the unicode consortium.

Besides the other remarks on "tradition", I think this is where a big
problem lies: We should not deviate from a common standard (without
very good cause).

There are cases where a language does good by deviating from the common
standard. There are also cases where it is bad to deviate.

Almost all current programming languages understand unicode, for
instance:

* C: http://en.cppreference.com/w/c/language/escape
* C++: http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/escape
* JavaScript: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Grammar_and_types#Using_special_characters_in_strings

and that were only the first 3 I tried. They all use `\u` followed by 4
hexadecimal digits.

You may not like the current standard. You may think/know/... it to be
suboptimal for human comprehension. However, what you are suggesting is
a very costly change. A change where --- I believe --- Python should not
take the lead, but also should not be afraid to follow if other
programming languages start to change.

I would suggest that this is a change that might be best proposed to the
unicode consortium itself, instead of going to (just) a programming
language.

It'd be interesting to see whether or not you can convince the unicode
consortium that 8 symbols will be enough.