PEP 3131: Supporting Non-ASCII Identifiers

[Hendrik van Rooyen]

"Hendrik van Rooyen" <m... at m........co.za> wrote:

> 
> 
> > > Now look me in the eye and tell me that you find
> > > the mix of proper German and English keywords
> > > beautiful.
> > 
> > I can't admit that, but I find that using German
> > class and method names is beautiful. The rest around
> > it (keywords and names from the standard library)
> > are not English - they are Python.
> > 
MvL:
> > (look me in the eye and tell me that "def" is
> > an English word, or that "getattr" is one)
> > 
> 
HvR:
> LOL - true - but a broken down assembler programmer like me
> does not use getattr - and def is short for define, and for and while
> and in are not German.

After an intense session of omphaloscopy, I would like another bite 
at this cherry.

I think my problem is something like this - when I see a line of code
like:

def frobnitz():

I do not actually see the word "def" - I see something like:

define a function with no arguments called frobnitz

This "expansion" process is involuntary, and immediate in my mind.

And this is immediately followed by an irritated reaction, like:

WTF is frobnitz? What is it supposed to do? What Idiot wrote this?

Similarly, when I encounter the word "getattr" - it is immediately
expanded to "get attribute" and this "expansion" is kind of
dependant on another thing, namely that my mind is in "English
mode" - I refer here to something that only happens rarely, but
with devastating effect, experienced only by people who can read
more than one language - I am referring to the phenomenon that you 
look at an unfamiliar piece of writing on say a signboard, with the 
wrong language "switch" set in your mind - and you cannot read it,
it makes no sense for a second or two - until you kind of step back 
mentally and have a more deliberate look at it, when it becomes 
obvious that its not say English, but Afrikaans, or German, or vice 
versa.

So in a sense, I can look you in the eye and assert that "def" and 
"getattr" are in fact English words...  (for me, that is)

I suppose that this "one language track" - mindedness of mine
is why I find the mix of keywords and German or Afrikaans so 
abhorrent - I cannot really help it, it feels as if I am eating a 
sandwich, and that I bite on a stone in the bread. - It just jars.

Good luck with your PEP - I don't support it, but it is unlikely
that the Python-dev crowd and GvR would be swayed much
by the opinions of the egregious HvR.

Aesthetics aside, I think that the practical maintenance problems
(especially remote maintenance) is the rock on which this
ship could founder.

- Hendrik

--
Philip Larkin (English Poet) :
They fuck you up, your mom and dad -
They do not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had,
and add some extra, just for you.