[Python-Dev] PEP292 vs Unicode

[Aahz]

On Fri, Sep 10, 2004, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
>
> While I'm very sympathetic to </F>'s view that there's more than one
> way to skin a cat, and a good cat-handling design should account for
> that, and conceding his expertise, none-the-less I don't think that
> Python really wants to _maintain_ more than one text-processing system
> by default.  Of course if you restrict yourself to the class of ASCII-
> only strings, you can do better, and of course that is a huge class of
> strings.  But that, as such, is important only to efficiency fanatics.

That's a good point, and that's what Python is moving toward.  The thing
is, we currently have two text processing systems, and there's no reason
(given Python's dynamic dispatch capabilities) to treat one of them as
second-class for this issue.  It's particularly onerous in this instance
because Unicode is unfortunately second-class in a number of respects,
and doing what is in some respects a silent switch here would be
needlessly confusing and irritating for users.
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little
statesmen and philosophers and divines."  --Ralph Waldo Emerson