[Python-Dev] #pragmas in Python source code

[Fred L. Drake, Jr.]

M.-A. Lemburg writes:
 > Hmm, anything else would introduce a new keyword, I guess. And
 > new keywords cause new scripts to fail in old interpreters
 > even when they don't use Unicode at all and only include
 > <whatever the name is> per convention.

  Only if the new keyword is used in the script or anything it
imports.  This is exactly like using new syntax (u'...') or new
library features (unicode('abc', 'iso-8859-1')).
  I can't think of anything that gets included "by convention" that
breaks anything.  I don't recall a proposal that we should casually
add pragmas to our scripts if there's no need to do so.  Adding
pragmas to library modules is *not* part of the issue; they'd only be
there if the version of Python they're part of supports the syntax.


  -Fred

--
Fred L. Drake, Jr.	  <fdrake at acm.org>
Corporation for National Research Initiatives