[XML-SIG] Re: Issues with Unicode type

[Uche Ogbuji]

> On Wed, 2002-09-25 at 22:39, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> > =

> > I book all this under FUD. It'll take a bit of time, but we'll
> > eventually move there. For now, I think the issues around
> > surrogates and the need for non-BMP code points in real life
> > applications are a bit overhyped.
> =

> I think that it depends what we call real life and more precisely if yo=
u
> consider that the full conformance to standards and W3C recommendations=

> is part of the real life or not.
> =

> Having never met the need before, I can't consider non BMP code points
> as an absolute requirement by themselves.
> =

> OTH, working on implementations of standards (or recs) without aiming
> for complete conformance is something which I consider as dangerous and=

> I am reaching a point where Python doesn't look as a adequate plateform=

> to implement W3C XML Schema datatypes (and hardly an adequate platform
> to implement Relax NG) because of the lack of support of non BMP code
> points.

This is very unfair.

First of all, if Python is inadequate for conformant XML technologies, th=
en =

you're out of luck.  No language is immune from Unicode bugs, and I know =
I ran =

across some howlers in JDK 1.3.  Java doesn't even have built-in regex =

capabilities, so people either have to write their own or borrow Oromatch=
er or =

the like.

In real life, conformance is nice, but people need to prioritize bug fixe=
s and =

development.  You say that you didn't run into these problems in a real l=
ife =

scenario but in trying to conform to some odd bits of a test suite you're=
 =

using.  Can you credibly put this forth as a reason for the Python team t=
o =

drop everything and fix all wide unicode bugs?


-- =

Uche Ogbuji                                    Fourthought, Inc.
http://uche.ogbuji.net    http://4Suite.org    http://fourthought.com
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