Increasing the diversity of people who write Python

[Richard Damon]

On 11/24/17 12:35 PM, Skip Montanaro wrote:
>> I find it it interesting that the primary reason to want to limit the
>> character set to ASCII is people thinking that it would make it hard for
>> *them* to read/use the code, but no thought about how much harder it makes
>> it on the original author/team to write code that is easily understood by
>> THEM.
> I think you misunderstood my post. For that I apologize that I wasn't clear.
>
> I was only pointing out that there is a ton of inertia based on the
> long dominance of ASCII (and before that EBCDIC) and its downstream
> effects on computer entry systems. I know that there are likely
> semi-reasonable ways to enter accented characters on my keyboard, but
> they are unknown to me, and will likely be different on the different
> systems I use, so I've not bothered to learn any of them.
>
> One thing which occurred to me as I was typing my earlier message, but
> which I failed to include... I wonder if when you go to Dell (for
> example) to configure a computer, you can easily specify a non-ASCII
> keyboard for a machine destined for delivery to the US. Maybe it's
> trivial, but maybe it's just enough more difficult (slows delivery,
> costs a few bucks more, which of the alternatives should you choose?)
> that people think, "Ah hell, might as well just go with the ASCII
> keyboard."
>
> I'm clearly in the old fart camp at this point. Perhaps American
> software engineers half my age aren't afflicted by my career-long
> biases.
>
> Skip
>
I doubt I am 1/2 your age (are you 120 yet?). The keyboard I normally 
use would be very hard to use for foreign characters, but I do 
understand that if I wanted to, I could easily get a keyboard designed 
for use in any other language. Some would take some training to learn 
how to use (like a Chinese keyboard).

The fact that I was pointing out is that the fact that people are 
arguing that because *THEY* would have difficulty working with a code 
base (that they likely would never actually need access to) is a good 
reason from preventing others, who already HAVE the needed 
hardware/training from being able to make the code more readable to them.

As far as the basic ability to enter arbitrary characters,  most OSes 
have a generic entry method (like windows ALT-numbers method) and I 
think most have a character selector app to add arbitrary characters to 
the clipboard. Yes, this may not be very convenient for a lot of use but 
is possible. Also, it is generally possible to select an alternate 
keyboard map for your keyboard to enter other characters, you then just 
need to know (or have printed) the new mapping of the keyboard. It helps 
if you do this to have learned the new mapping, and how to touch type on 
that keyboard. Generally you can also get Keyboard Stickers to place on 
your keyboard if you are a hunt and pecker typist.

-- 
Richard Damon