PEP 3131: Supporting Non-ASCII Identifiers

[Donn Cave]

In article <Xns99316D6882950duncanbooth at 127.0.0.1>,
 Duncan Booth <duncan.booth at invalid.invalid> wrote:

> Yes, non-English speakers have to learn a set of technical words which are 
> superficially in English, but even English native speakers have to learn 
> non-obvious meanings, or non-English words 'str', 'isalnum', 'ljust'.
> That is an unavoidable barrier, but it is a limited vocabulary and a 
> limited set of syntax rules. What I'm trying to say is that we shouldn't 
> raise the entry bar any higher than it has to be.
> 
> The languages BTW in the countries I mentioned are: in Nigeria all school 
> children must study both their indigenous language and English, Brazil and 
> Uruguay use Spanish and Nepali is the official language of Nepal.

[Spanish in Brazil?  Not as much as you might think.]

This issue reminds me a lot of CP4E, which some years back seemed
to be an ideological driver for Python development.  Computer Programming
4 Everyone, for those who missed it.  I can't say it actually had
a huge effect on Python, which has in most respects gone altogether
the opposite direction, but it was always on the table and certainly
must have had some influence.

One of the reasons these initiatives make soggy footing for a new
direction is that everyone's an expert, when it comes to one or
another feature that may or may not work for children, but no one
has a clue when it comes to the total package, sometimes to the
point of what seems like willful blindness to the deficiencies of
a favorite programming language.

If we have a sound language proposal backed by a compelling need,
fine, but don't add a great burden to the language for the sake of
great plans for Nepalese grade school programmers.

   Donn Cave, donn at u.washington.edu