[Python-Dev] Python and the Unicode Character Database (original) (raw)

Alexander Belopolsky alexander.belopolsky at gmail.com
Mon Nov 29 00:12:44 CET 2010

On Sun, Nov 28, 2010 at 6:03 PM, "Martin v. Löwis" <martin at v.loewis.de> wrote: ..

Note that the support in float() (and the other numeric constructors) to work with Unicode code points was explicitly added when Unicode support was added to Python and has been available since Python 1.6. That doesn't necessarily make it useful. Alexander's complaint is that it makes Python unstable (i.e. changing as the UCD changes).

What makes it worse, is that while superficially, Unicode versions follow the same X.Y.Z format as Python versions, the stability promises are completely different. For example, it appears that the general category for the ZERO WIDTH SPACE was changed in Unicode 4.0.1. I don't think a change affecting str.split(), int(), float() and probably numerous other library functions would be acceptable in a Python micro release.

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