[Python-Dev] PEP 215 redux: toward a simplified consensus? (original) (raw)

Paul Prescod paul@prescod.net
Mon, 25 Feb 2002 15:29:39 -0800

Skip Montanaro wrote:

>>>>> "Paul" == Paul Prescod <paul@prescod.net> writes: Paul> "Martin v. Loewis" wrote: >> I could not accept any solution that cannot offer anything but this. >> This kind of interpolation is plain broken. Paul> How so? I need more info to go on. I have no direct experience with text translation, but in this internet day and age, it seems to me that a change to the language shouldn't make internationalization more difficult than it already is.

I've proposed that whereas today you add a "( )" in the future you would add "( )" and remove "$" if it happens to occur at the start of the string. If the string didn't start with a "$" you might also have to scan to see if it contains one. In that case you double it up.

This doesn't make internationalization more difficult. As proof I present mailman, which already does the interpolation I ask for as a feature of its implementation of "_()". All I'm asking is that mailman's interpolation feature ALSO be available under a simplified syntax at compile time.

Paul Prescod