[Python-Dev] Unicode (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido@python.org
Fri, 26 Apr 2002 08:23:51 -0400

True; and it was hard enough to get it mostly to a working compromise.

Let me add that I very much appreciate your heroic efforts there!!!

Very true indeed. Still, I think Unicode gives a chance of "fixing" the problem we currently have with strings: Unicode is unlike strings only usable for text data and that makes it ideal as standard type for text -- we'll never convince people to make a difference between text and binary data in strings, so offering them Unicode as alternative is a good strategy, IMHO.

It's a long way before we're there though -- we'd have to overhaul the I/O system entirely, and that takes a lot of time not just because of the effort but also because it won't be fully compatible.

Also, once 8-bit strings are used for binary data only, I wonder if they shouldn't be more like Java's byte arrays -- i.e. mutable. And they don't need a literal notation. That's another major language change. :-(

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)