PEP 3131: Supporting Non-ASCII Identifiers

[rurpy at yahoo.com]

On May 15, 3:28 pm, René Fleschenberg <r... at korteklippe.de> wrote:
> We all know what the PEP is about (we can read). The point is: If we do
> not *need* non-English/ASCII identifiers, we do not need the PEP. If the
> PEP does not solve an actual *problem* and still introduces some
> potential for *new* problems, it should be rejected. So far, the
> "problem" seems to just not exist. The burden of proof is on those who
> support the PEP.

I'm not sure how you conclude that no problem exists.
- Meaningful identifiers are critical in creating good code.
- Non-english speakers can not create or understand
  english identifiers hence can't create good code nor
  easily grok existing code.
Considering the vastly greater number of non-English
spreakers in the world, who are not thus unable to use
Python effectively, seems like a problem to me.

That all programers know enough english to create and
understand english identifiers is currently speculation or
based on tiny personaly observed samples.

I will add my own personal observation supporting the
opposite.  A Japanese programmer friend was working
on a project last fall for a large Japanese company in
Japan.  A lot of their programming was outsourced to
Korea.  While the liason people on both side communicated
in a mixture of English and Japanese my understanding
was the all most all the programmers spoke almost
no English.  The language used was Java.  I don't know
how they handled identifiers but I have no reason to
believe they were English (though they may have been
transliterated Japanese).

Now that too is a tiny personaly observered sample
so it carries no more weight than the others.  But it
is enough to make me question the original assertion
thal all programmers know english.

It's a big world and there are a lot of people out there.
Drawing conclusions based on 5 or 50 or 500 personal
contacts is pretty risky, particularly when being wrong
means putting up major barriers to Python use for
huge numbers of people.