[Python-ideas] Null coalescing operator

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Steven d'Aprano writes:

 > I think you mean WHITE SQUARE? At least, I can not see any "OPEN
 > SQUARE" code point in Unicode, and the character you use below □
 > is called WHITE SQUARE.

You're right, I just used a common Japanese name for it.  I even
checked the table to make sure it was BMP but didn't notice the proper
name which is written right there.  Sorry for the confusion.

Paul Moore writes:

 > Personally, I'm not even sure I want non-ASCII operators until
 > non-ASCII characters are common, and used without effort, in natural
 > language media such as email (on lists like this), source code
 > comments, documentation, etc.

The 3 billion computer users (and their ancestors) who don't live in
the U.S. or Western Europe have been using non-ASCII, commonly,
without effort, in natural language media on lists like this one for
up to 5 decades now.  In my own experience, XEmacs lists have
explictly allowed Japanese and Russian since 1998, and used to see the
occasional posts in German, French and Spanish, with no complaints of
mojibake or objections that I can recall.  And I have maintained
XEmacs code containing Japanese identifiers, both variables and
functions, since 1997.

I understand why folks are reluctant, but face it, the technical
issues were solved before half our users were born.  It's purely a
social problem now, and pretty much restricted to the U.S. at that.

 > For better or worse, it may be emoji that drive that change ;-)

I suspect that the 100 million or so Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and
Indian programmers who have had systems that have no trouble
whatsoever handling non-ASCII for as long they've used computers will
drive that change.