[beginner] What's wrong?

[Dan Sommers]

On Sun, 03 Apr 2016 08:39:02 -0700, Rustom Mody wrote:

> On Sunday, April 3, 2016 at 8:58:59 PM UTC+5:30, Dan Sommers wrote:
>> On Sun, 03 Apr 2016 07:30:47 -0700, Rustom Mody wrote:
>> 
>> > So here are some examples to illustrate what I am saying:
>> 
>> [A vs a, A vs A, flag vs flag, etc.]
> <snip>
>> I understand that in some use cases, flag and flag represent the same
>> English word, but please don't extend that to identifiers in my
>> software.

> I wonder once again if you are getting my point opposite to the one I
> am making.  With ASCII there were problems like O vs 0 -- niggling but
> small.
> 
> With Unicode its a gigantic pandora box.  Python by allowing unicode
> identifiers without restraint has made grief for unsuspecting
> programmers.

What about the A vs a case, which comes up even with ASCII-only
characters?  If those are the same, then I, as a reader of Python code,
have to understand all the rules about ß (which I think have changed
over time), and potentially þ and others.

> That is why my original suggestion that there should have been alongside this
> 'brave new world', a pragma wherein a programmer can EXPLICITLY declare
> #language Greek
> Then he is knowingly opting into possible clashes between A and Α
> But not between A and А.

If I declared #language Greek, then I'd expect an identifier like A to
be rejected by the compiler.  That said, I don't know if that sort of
distinction is as clear cut in every language supported by Unicode.

And just to cause trouble (because that's the way I feel today), can I
declare

#γλώσσα Ελληνική

;-)

> [And if you think the above is a philosophical disquisition on
> Aristotle's law of identity: "A is A" you just proved my point that
> unconstrained Unicode identifiers is a mess]

Can we take a "we're all adults here" approach?  For the same reason
that adults don't use identifiers like xl0, x10, xlO, and xl0 anywhere
near each other, shouldn't we also not use A and A anywhere near each
other?  I certainly don't want the language itself to [try to] reject
x10 and xIO because they look too much alike in many fonts.