[I18n-sig] SIG charter and goals

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Andy Robinson wrote:
> 
> Apologies to everyone for taking so long to get started; I have been
> on the road between IPC8 and today, and hampered by a broken down
> laptop..
> 
> I'd like to confirm with everyone what we discussed at IPC8, and try
> to outline what I see as the SIG's charter.  If this I agreed, I will
> put this up on a SIG home page this week.
> 
> I propose that the SIG's deliverables are:
> 
> 1.  Support addition of Unicode to the Python core for 1.6:
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> The key tasks are to add Unicode string support to the Python core
> (MAL), and add a new Unicode regex engine (Fredrik).  These are both
> well underway.  This group should assist with testing, and be the
> primary forum for feedback on those features.

FYI, the Unicode stuff will go into the public CVS version
sometime in March.
 
> 2. Encodings API and library:
> --------------------------------
> 
> We must deliver an encodings library which surpasses the features of
> that in Java.  It should allow conversion between many common
> encodings; access to Unicode character properties; and anything else
> which makes encoding conversion more pleasant.  This should be
> initially based on MAL's draft specification, although the spec may
> be changed if we find good reason to.

Note that Python will have a builtin codec support. The details
are described in the proposal paper (not the C API though --
that still lives in the .h files of the Unicode implementation).

Note that I have made some good experience with the existing
spec: it is very flexible, extendable and versatile. It also
greatly reduces coding efforts by providing working baseclasses.
 
> There will be an inevitable initial focus on Japanese support due to
> the key people involved.  However, if we can do that well then other
> encodings should be less of a problem.
> 
> 3.  Locales:
> --------------
> Implement a candidate module for the standard library offering support
> for the world's date, time, money and number formats, and for time
> zones.

Hmm, I'd suggest to leave this out of the core and provide it
through third party extensions which are then shipped by some
Python distribution party.
 
> 4.   Application Localization:
> -----------------------------------
> This group is the intended focal point for frameworks for localizing
> both conventional applications and Python-powered web sites.  This
> field is very large and varied and we set not targets for delivering
> 'a solution'; however, we hope to generate discussion, how-tos and
> references to examples of good and bad practice in this area.
> 
> 5. Internationalizing Pythonwin and IDLE
> -----------------------------------------------------
> There are some current bugs/features in these environments which
> seriously hamper use in double-byte environments.  We should try to
> get these stamped out.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
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