python 2.7 and unicode (one more time)

[Rustom Mody]

On Friday, November 21, 2014 12:06:54 PM UTC+5:30, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:
> Chris Angelico :
> 
> > On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 5:56 AM, Marko Rauhamaa  wrote:
> >> I don't really like it how Unicode is equated with text, or even
> >> character strings.
> > [...]
> > Do you have actual text that you're unable to represent in Unicode?
> 
> Not my point at all.
> 
> I'm saying equating an abstract data type (string) with its
> representation (Unicode vector) is bad taste.
> 
> > We don't call numbers IEEE,
> 
> Exactly.
> 
> > Do you genuinely have text that you can't represent in Unicode, or are
> > you just arguing against Unicode to try to justify "Python strings are
> > <something else>" as a basis for your code?
> 
> Nobody is arguing against Unicode. I'm saying, let's talk about the
> forest instead of the trees (except when the trees really are the
> focus).

Ive always felt the makers of C showed remarkably good taste in 
the names 'int' and 'float'. Unlike:
Pascal: Int and Real
PL/1: Fixed and Float

IOW the more leaky abstraction used for real numbers is explicitly reminded.

Likewise in 2014, and given the arguments, inconsistencies, etc
remembering the nuts-n-bolts below the strings-represented-as-unicode
abstraction may be in order.