Multibyte Character Surport for Python

[François Pinard]

[Erno Kuusela]

> In article <j4y9euwxq7.fsf at informatik.hu-berlin.de>,
> loewis at informatik.hu-berlin.de (Martin v. Löwis) writes:

> | So far, it appeared that there is wide agreement that identifiers in
> | Python should be ASCII only. Do you disagree, i.e. do you *really*
> | want to use non-ASCII identifiers?

> what would be the advantage in preventing non-english-speaking people
> from using python?

The only reason I ever heard is preventing people to write code that cannot
be universally exported.

People can understand two different, orthogonal things in this issue:
keywords and user identifiers.  I'm not really asking that keywords be
translated, because Python keywords and syntax are modelled after the English
languages.  This may be debated of course, but is a lower priority issue.

However, identifiers created by local programmers, and especially identifiers
naming functions or methods, should be writable in national language
without forcing us to make orthographical mistakes all over (I usually
choose English identifiers over disgustingly written French identifiers).

You know, there is a background irritation at not being able to program
in my own language, this irritation is permanent and never fades out --
a bit like the fossile radiation after the big bang! :-) I surely like
Python a lot, but I would like it even more if it was on the side of
programmers of all nations, and not forcing everyone to wide portability:
there are many cases where planetary portability is just not a concern.

-- 
François Pinard   http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~pinard