Unicode [was Re: Cult-like behaviour]

[Terry Reedy]

On 7/16/2018 1:13 PM, Jim Lee wrote:

> I just think that a language should allow one to bypass Unicode handling 
> easily *when it's not needed*.

Both for patching IDLE and for my currently private work, I usually only 
use Ascii, and no unicode escapes.  When I do, it does not matter 
whether editor and python internally use ascii unicode or ascii bytes. 
So I don't understand 'bypass Unicode handling'.

When I do want to use other characters, whether to test IDLE or just for 
fun, Python 3 in much nicer.  Since I have not bothered to learn ann 
non-Englich Windows Input Methods, I just use \unnnn or, for non-BMP 
chars, \U000nnnnn escapes.  I don't need a 'u' prefix or unicode(s, 
encoding=???) conversion.  Thus, I was able to expand IDLE's font sample 
of the font selection dialog tab from 40 ascii chars to this.

<ASCII/Latin1>
AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJj
1234567890#:+=(){}[]
¢£¥§©«®¶½ĞÀÁÂÃÄÅÇÐØß

<IPA,Greek,Cyrillic>
ɐɕɘɞɟɤɫɮɰɷɻʁʃʆʎʞʢʫʭʯ
ΑαΒβΓγΔδΕεΖζΗηΘθΙιΚκ
БбДдЖжПпФфЧчЪъЭэѠѤѬӜ

<Hebrew, Arabic>
אבגדהוזחטיךכלםמןנסעף
ابجدهوزحطي٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩

<Devanagari, Tamil>
०१२३४५६७८९अआइईउऊएऐओऔ
௦௧௨௩௪௫௬௭௮௯அஇஉஎ

<East Asian>
〇一二三四五六七八九
汉字漢字人木火土金水
가냐더려모뵤수유즈치
あいうえおアイウエオ

*You* may not care about the non-Ascii parts, but people who use other 
scripts do.


So I don't understand why you are bothered by having the option of 
easily using other characters if you want to, or if external 
circumstances were to compel you.  I love it.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy