[Python-Dev] PEP 263 considered faulty (for some Japanese)

[Martin v. Loewis]

SUZUKI Hisao <suzuki611@oki.com> writes:

> Just one worry:  it may be incompatible with '#!/usr/bin/env'
> used in Unix.

That is a problem for Unix users; Windows users find it less of a
problem. I do hope Unix will change in this respect (atleast I hope
Linux will change); that will take quite some time.

> 1. Wait until when the UTF-8 is popular, and then adopt the UTF-8
>    the sole encoding.  (The time might come within two years.)
> 
> 2. Make Python able to handle various encodings which are in use
>    now.
> 
> And I'd believe that once taking the option 2., it would be
> still sensible to make UTF-8 the default encoding.

I agree, but again, it is a matter of timing. Making UTF-8 the default
encoding in two years may be acceptable; it certainly wasn't two years
ago when the Unicode support was introduced in Python. 

Just be patient; forcing UTF-8 upon people will help nobody. Instead,
fix all the issues that adoption of UTF-8 would have, wait for people
to adopt the new technology widely, then change the default. At the
moment, it is an unfortunate fact that only ASCII is adopted widely
(and we had to wait 40 years for that).

Regards,
Martin