[Python-Dev] Python and the Unicode Character Database

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Lennart Regebro writes:

 > *I* think it is more important. In python 3, you can never ever assume
 > anything is ASCII any more.

Sure you can.  In Python program text, all keywords will be ASCII
(English, even, though it may be en_NL.UTF-8<wink>) for the forseeable
future.

I see no reason not to make a similar promise for numeric literals.  I
see no good reason to allow compatibility full-width Japanese "ASCII"
numerals or Arabic cursive numerals in "for i in range(...)" for
example.

As soon as somebody gives an example of a culture, however minor, that
uses computers but actively prefers to use non-ASCII numerals to
express numbers in an IT context, I'll review my thinking.  But at the
moment it's 101% YAGNI.