[Python-Dev] len(chr(i)) = 2? (original) (raw)

Alexander Belopolsky alexander.belopolsky at gmail.com
Sat Nov 20 23:32:28 CET 2010

On Sat, Nov 20, 2010 at 4:05 AM, "Martin v. Löwis" <martin at v.loewis.de> wrote: ..

A technical correct description would be to say that Python uses either 16-bit code units or 32-bit code units; for brevity, these can be called narrow and wide code units.

+1

PEP 261 introduced terms "wide Py_UNICODE" and "narrow Py_UNICODE," but when discussion is at Python level, I don't think we should use names of C typedefs. I think "wide/narrow Unicode" builds describe the two options clearly and unambiguously. I prefer Python-specific terminology to Unicode terms because in Python reference documentation we often discuss details that are outside of the scope of Unicode Standard. For example, interpretation of lone surrogates on narrow builds is one such detail.

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