Py 3.3, unicode / upper()

[Stefan Krah]

wxjmfauth at gmail.com <wxjmfauth at gmail.com> wrote:
> But, this is not the problem.
> I was suprised to discover this:
> 
> >>> 'Straße'.upper()
> 'STRASSE'
> 
> I really, really do not know what I should think about that.
> (It is a complex subject.) And the real question is why?

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro%C3%9Fes_%C3%9F#Versalsatz_ohne_gro.C3.9Fes_.C3.9F

"Die gegenwärtigen amtlichen Regeln[6] zur neuen deutschen Rechtschreibung
 kennen keinen Großbuchstaben zum ß: Jeder Buchstabe existiert als
 Kleinbuchstabe und als Großbuchstabe (Ausnahme ß). Im Versalsatz empfehlen
 die Regeln, das ß durch SS zu ersetzen: Bei Schreibung mit Großbuchstaben
 schreibt man SS, zum Beispiel: Straße -- STRASSE."


According to the new official spelling rules the uppercase ß does not exist.
The recommendation is to use "SS" when writing in all-caps.


As to why: It has always been acceptable to replace ß with "ss" when ß
wasn't part of a character set. In the new spelling rules, ß has been
officially replaced with "ss" in some cases:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/da%C3%9F


The uppercase ß isn't really needed, since ß does not occur at the beginning
of a word. As far as I know, most Germans wouldn't even know that it has
existed at some point or how to write it.



Stefan Krah