Time we switched to unicode? (was Explanation of this Python language feature?)

[Roy Smith]

In article <mailman.8483.1395717465.18130.python-list at python.org>,
 Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 2:00 PM, Rustom Mody <rustompmody at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Yeah: Its 2014 (at least out here)...
> > About time we started using unicode in earnest dont you think??
> 
> We do.
> 
> > Id like to see the following spellings corrected:
> > lambda to λ
> > in to ∈
> > (preferably with the 'in' predicate and the 'in' in 'for' disambiguated)
> > set([]) to ?
> 
> The problems with these is not Unicode or a lack thereof, but keys. I
> know how to type "lambda" on any keyboard I reach for; if it's a
> full-sized QWERTY variant, I can type it without looking, and if it's
> something else then I can peer at the thing and find the appropriate
> five letters. (Phone keyboards are notoriously peer-worthy.) How do I
> type λ? Do I have to memorize an alt-key sequence? Do I need to keep a
> set of "language keywords" in a file somewhere so I can copy and
> paste? Does my editor have to provide them?

I started programming on 029 keypunches and ASR-33 teletypes.  If you asked me to
type most of the punctuation we take for granted today (not to mention lower case
letters), I would have looked at you as if you had asked me to type something in greek.

Hardware evolves.  I assume that future generations of programmers will have input
devices better suited to unicode than the clumsy keyboards we use today.