Allowing non-ASCII identifiers

[Paul Prescod]

Martin v. Löwis wrote:

> Paul Prescod wrote:
> 
>> I wonder if the proposal would be more palatable if it were restricted 
>> to 8-bit encodings (what we used to call "code pages"). This is at 
>> least a first step in the right direction that would help westerners 
>> and could be made to work even if Python were compiled without Unicode 
>> support. (it is still possible to compile Python without Unicode isn't 
>> it?)
> 
> 
> I doubt that it would matter much to those currently opposed; I know
> that *I* would be opposed to such a strategy: Allowing arbitrary source
> code encoding is no technical challenge whatsoever, and restricting
> it to single-byte encodings is an arbitrary restriction.

You are right. Re-reading Guido's complaint I understand what you mean. 
But I have heard the argument in the past that Unicode source files 
would break introspection tools. If that isn't a concern this time 
around then disregard my suggestion.

  Paul Prescod