[Python-3000] PEP: Supporting Non-ASCII Identifiers (original) (raw)

"Martin v. Löwis" martin at v.loewis.de
Tue May 1 19:39:44 CEST 2007

Robert Brewer schrieb:

Martin v. Löwis wrote:

Subject: [Python-3000] PEP: Supporting Non-ASCII Identifiers

Common Objections ================= People claim that they will not be able to use a library if to do so they have to use characters they cannot type on their keyboards. However, it is the choice of the designer of the library to decide on various constraints for using the library: people may not be able to use the library because they cannot get physical access to the source code (because it is not published), or because licensing prohibits usage, or because the documentation is in a language they cannot understand. A developer wishing to make a library widely available needs to make a number of explicit choices (such as publication, licensing, language of documentation, and language of identifiers). It should always be the choice of the author to make these decisions - not the choice of the language designers. That seems true when each such decision is considered in isolation. But the language designers are responsible to make sure the number of such explicit decisions/choices does not grow beyond a reasonable limit.

Right. However, it is today already the developer's choice to use English-based identifiers, or from a different language using transliteration. So offering support to use the correct script if they have chosen to use native-language identifiers does not really change the number of explicit decisions.

Regards, Martin

More information about the Python-3000 mailing list