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

Alexander Belopolsky alexander.belopolsky at gmail.com
Mon Nov 29 00:29:47 CET 2010

On Sun, Nov 28, 2010 at 6:19 PM, "Martin v. Löwis" <martin at v.loewis.de> wrote: ..

You can see the Unicode Consortium's stability policy at

http://unicode.org/policies/stabilitypolicy.html

From the link above: """ As more experience is gathered in implementing the characters, adjustments in the properties may become necessary. Examples of such properties include, but are not limited to, the following:

General_Category ... """

In a sense, this is stronger than Python's backwards compatibility promises (which allow for certain incompatible changes to occur over time, whereas Unicode makes promises about all future versions).

I would say it is different and should be taken into account when tying language features to Unicode specifications. This was done in PEP 3131. Note that one of the stated objections was "Unicode is young; its problems are not yet well understood and solved;" (It is still true.)

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