[Python-3000] Support for PEP 3131 (original) (raw)
Stephen J. Turnbull stephen at xemacs.org
Sat May 26 08:37:08 CEST 2007
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Josiah Carlson writes:
It does, but it also refuses the temptation to guess that everyone wants to use unicode identifiers by default. Why? As Stephen Turnbull has already stated, the majority of users will have no use and no exposure to unicode identifiers.
I'm afraid I conflated two issues in that post. I'm sorry for the confusion.
My first claim is that editor (not Python!) users indeed will be overwhelmingly monoscript for the foreseeable future. I'd bet serious money on that (as long as somebody else pays for the survey to make the judgment :-).
My second claim is that where non-ASCII identifiers are already available, their use is extremely restricted, and the overwhelming majority of programmers never encounter them. I predict that once PEP 3131 is implemented, their overall usage in Python programs will increase very slowly for a few years. However, there will be pockets of fast diffusion (CP4E in particular, including programming classes for history majors at university and the like).
By the way, this is an example that shows that the recent injection of the word "parochial" is truly pernicious, because it's attached to the wrong set of arguments.Please note, it is those pockets of Unicode adoption that are truly parochial, not the ASCII advocates! Those pockets can be early and deep adopters precisely because they are small, homogeneous groups, unconcerned with the world outside. ASCII advocates are obviously self-interested ("IAGNI, so you can't have it, it would cost me extra effort"), but they are not parochial: they know they're going to exchange code with other cultures, they welcome that exchange, and they do not want it hindered for "frivolous" reasons.
Advocates of Unicode want it for themselves and their buddies, and of course are happy to have it used by other groups---used independently by equally parochial groups.
True, "frivolous" is a parochial evaluation of the cultural exchange that use of Unicode identifiers can foster, but that notion of "parochial" is on a different level. IMHO that "cultural exchange" level is highly relevant to the decision to implement Unicode identifiers in some way, but it's the "code exchange" level that is most relevant to the pace of introduction. And that has to consider the balance between faster growth within Unicode-using groups, versus the facilitation of opportunistic[1] exchange among groups using the (admittedly imperfect) lingua franca of ASCII.
Footnotes: [1] Ie, when you look at someone's app and go "I wonder how she does that? Can I use her code in my app?" Obviously in a formal exchange, the identifier constituent set can and should be negotiated.
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