Python discussed in Nature

[Chris Angelico]

On Fri, Feb 13, 2015 at 5:29 AM, John Ladasky
<john_ladasky at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> It works fine, at least on my Ubuntu Linux system (and what scientist doesn't use Linux?).  I also have special mathematical symbols, superscripted numbers, etc. in my program comments.  It's easier to read 2x³ + 3x² than 2*x**3 + 3*x**2.
>
> I am teaching someone Python who is having a few problems with Unicode on his Windows 7 machine.  It would appear that Windows shipped with a less-than-complete Unicode font for its command shell.  But that's not Python's fault.
>

Yes, Windows's default terminal/console does have issues. If all your
text is staying within the BMP, you may be able to run it within IDLE
to get somewhat better results; or PowerShell may help. But as you
say, that's not Python's fault.

Fortunately, it's not difficult to write a GUI program that
manipulates Unicode text, or something that works entirely with files
and leaves the display up to something else (maybe a good text editor,
or a web browser). All your internals are working perfectly, it's just
the human interface that's a bit harder. And only on flawed/broken
platforms.

ChrisA