PEP 3131: Supporting Non-ASCII Identifiers

[Alex Martelli]

Aldo Cortesi <aldo at nullcube.com> wrote:

> Thus spake Steven D'Aprano (steven at REMOVE.THIS.cybersource.com.au):
> 
> > Perhaps you aren't aware that doing something "by eye" is idiomatic
> > English for doing it quickly, roughly, imprecisely. It is the opposite of
> > taking the time and effort to do the job carefully and accurately. If you
> > measure something "by eye", you just look at it and take a guess.
> 
> Well, Steve, speaking as someone not entirely unfamiliar with idiomatic
> English, I can say with some confidence that that's complete and utter
> bollocks (idomatic usage for "nonsense", by the way). To do something "by
> eye" means nothing more nor less than doing it visually. Unless you can
> provide a citation to the contrary, please move on from this petty little
> point of yours, and try to make a substantial technical argument instead.

I can't find any reference for Steven's alleged idiomatic use of "by
eye", either -- _however_, my wife Anna (an American from Minnesota)
came up with exactly the same meaning when I asked her if "by eye" had
any idiomatic connotations, so I suspect it is indeed there, at least in
the Midwest.  Funniest, of course, is that the literal translation into
Italian, "a occhio", has a similiar idiomatic meaning to _any_ native
speaker of Italian -- and THAT one is even in the Italian wikipedia!-)

I'll be the first to admit that this issue has nothing to do with the
substance of the argument (on which my wife, also my co-author of the
2nd ed of the Python Cookbook and a fellow PSF member, deeply agrees
with you, Aldo, and me), but natural language nuances and curios are my
third-from-the-top most consuming interest (after programming and...
Anna herself!-).

[[_Visual inspection_ plays a crucial role in many areas of engineering,
of course; for example, visual inspection of welds is a very reliable,
although costly, quality assurance process, particularly if you ensure
that the inspectors hold the top professional degrees from the American
Welding Society (if you're operating in the USA:-)]].


Alex