--- Michael Urman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> The arguments then feel reduced to "Unicode enhances
> readability" vs.
> "Unicode impedes readability" and since clearly it
> does both, how do
> we make the value judgement about which it does
> more? How do we weigh
> the ability to use native language identifiers
> against the risk that
> there will be visually indistinguishable differences
> introduced?
>
I think offering some Unicode examples will enhance
the "Unicode enhances readability" argument. Martin
recently posted a small example program written in
German. As a German non-reader, I still found it
pretty easy to read, with a little bit of effort.
Interestingly, the one word that I wasn't able to
translate, even with the help of Babelfish, was the
German word for "insert." It turns out the thing that
threw me off was that I omitted the umlaut. That was
a bit of an epiphany for me.
I'd also be interested in actual testimonials from
teachers, Dutch tax lawyers, etc., that they will
embrace this feature.
I hate to make a decision by majority rule, but I
think there is the argument that you need to weigh the
population of ascii-literate people vs.
ascii-illiterate people.
(I don't mean ascii-illiterate as any kind of a slam;
I just think that's really the target audience for
this feature. I am kanji-illiterate, but I am also
not lobbying for any kanji programming languages to be
more ascii-friendly.)
(I also recognize that Guido did get quite a few
testimonials from Unicode users that suggest they
embrace this idea, but I haven't seen much in the last
couple weeks.)
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