Python discussed in Nature

[Terry Reedy]

On 2/12/2015 11:07 PM, Rustom Mody wrote:
> On Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 11:59:55 PM UTC+5:30, John Ladasky wrote:
>> On Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 3:08:10 AM UTC-8, Fabien wrote:
>>
>>> ... what a coincidence then that a huge majority of scientists
>>> (including me) dont care AT ALL about unicode. But since scientists are
>>> not paid to rewrite old code, the scientific world is still stuck to
>>> python 2.
>>
>> I'm a scientist.  I'm a happy Python 3 user who migrated from Python 2 about two years ago.
>>
>> And I use Unicode in my Python.  In implementing some mathematical models which have variables like delta, gamma, and theta, I decided that I didn't like the line lengths I was getting with such variable names.  I'm using δ, γ, and θ instead.  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.
>
> Haskell is a bit ahead of python in this respect:
>
> Prelude> let (x₁ , x₂) = (1,2)
> Prelude> (x₁ , x₂)
> (1,2)
>
>>>> (x₁ , x₂) = (1,2)
>    File "<stdin>", line 1
>      (x₁ , x₂) = (1,2)
>        ^
> SyntaxError: invalid character in identifier
>
> But python is ahead in another (arguably more) important aspect:
> Haskell gets confused by ligatures in identifiers; python gets them right
>
>>>> flag = 1
>>>> flag
> 1
>
> Prelude> let flag = 1
> Prelude> flag
>
> <interactive>:4:1: Not in scope: `flag'
>
> Hopefully python will widen its identifier-chars also

Python (supposedly) follows the Unicode definition based on character 
classes, as documented.  If the Unicode definition in fact allows 
subscripts, then Python should also.  If you want Python to broaden its 
definition beyond unicode, you will have to advocate and persuade.  It 
will not 'just happen'.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy