PEP 3131: Supporting Non-ASCII Identifiers

[André]

"Years ago", i wrote RUR-PLE  (a python learning environment based on
Karel the Robot).
Someone mentioned using RUR-PLE to teach programming in Chinese to
kids.  Here's a little text extracted from the English lessons (and an
even smaller one from the Turkish one).  I believe that this is
relevant to this discussion.
==========
While the creators of Reeborg designed him so that he obeys
instructions in English, they realised that not everyone understands
English. So, they gave him the ability to easily learn a second
language. For example, if we want to tell someone to "move forward" in
French, we would say "avance". We can tell Reeborg that "avance" is a
synonym of "move" simply by writing
avance = move.
The order here is important; the known command has to be on the right,
and the new one has to be on the left. Note that we don't have any
parentheses "()" appearing since the parentheses would tell Reeborg
that we want him to obey an instruction; here, we are simply teaching
him a new word. When we want Reeborg to follow the new instruction, we
will use avance().
[snip]

If you want, you can also teach Reeborg a synonym for turn_off. Or,
you may give synonyms in a language other than French if you prefer,
even creating your own language. Then, watch Reeborg as he obeys
instructions written in your language.
[snip]
Note that, if English is not your favourite language, you can always
create a synonym in your language, as long as you define it first,
before using it. However, the synonym you introduce must use the
English alphabet (letters without any accents). For example, in
French, one might define vire_a_gauche = turn_left and use
vire_a_gauche() to instruct the robot to turn left.

----------(this last paragraph, now translated in Turkish)

Eğer İngilizce sizin favori diliniz değilse komutları her zaman kendi
dilinizde de tanımlayabilirsiniz, ancak kendi dilinizde tanımladığınız
komutları oluştururken yalnızca İngiliz alfabesindeki 26 harfi
kullanabilirsiniz. Örneğin Türkçede sola dönüş için sola_don =
turn_left kullanılmalıdır (ö yerine o kullanılmış dikkat ediniz). Bu
tanımlamayı yaptıktan sonra Reeborg'u sola döndürmek için sola_don()
komutunu kullanabilirsiniz.
=================
I don't read Turkish, but I notice the number 26 there (plus a many
accented letters in the text), suspecting it refers to a small English
alphabet.   It always bugged me that I could not have proper robot
commands in French.


While I would not use any non-ascii characters in my coding project
(because I like to be able to get bug reports [and patch!] from
others), I would love to be able to rewrite the lessons for RUR-PLE
using commands in proper French, rather than the bastardized purely
ascii based version.  And I suspect it would be even more important in
Chinese...

André