Increasing the diversity of people who write Python (was: Benefits of unicode identifiers)

[Skip Montanaro]

> Because if I already can't understand the words, it will be more useful
> to me to be able to type them reliably at a keyboard, for replication,
> search, discussion with others about the code, etc.

I am probably not alone in my Americo-centric world where I can't even
easily type accented Latin-1 characters. I happen to be using Linux as
I type this, but type at a Windows keyboard at work (ugh) and have
long been a user of Macs (still have one or two at home). Might the
problem be further multiplied by the number of different ways I have
of entering text? Would Emacs running on Linux, but displaying on
Windows be different than Chrome running directly on Linux? I will
make a wild-ass guess and suggest that maybe, just maybe, those three
major system types have different ways of typing accented characters.
Consequently, I've never even tried to learn any of them. On the rare
instance where I need to type an accented character, such as when
typing Marc-André Lemburg's name properly, I ask Google for "accented
e" and copy/paste an instance.

That's a PITA, but worth it on the few occasions where I need it
today. I suppose I would have to break down and learn how to properly
enter such text should I need to Romanized text which might contain
cedillas, accents and other diacritical marks...

This is all not to suggest the goal isn't worth striving for, just
that there exists a huge barrier - in the form of ASCII and its
limiting effect on computer keyboard entry - to attaining Unicode
identifier Nirvana. Perhaps for my next computer I should choose a
non-ASCII keyboard option when configuring it.

Skip