> -----Original Message----- > From: Python-ideas [mailto:python-ideas-bounces+tritium- > list=sdamon....@python.org] On Behalf Of Paul Moore > Sent: Sunday, October 30, 2016 8:22 AM > To: Stephen J. Turnbull <turnbull.stephen...@u.tsukuba.ac.jp> > Cc: Python-Ideas <python-ideas@python.org> > Subject: Re: [Python-ideas] Non-ASCII in Python syntax? [was: Null > coalescing operator] > > > My point wasn't so much about dealing with the character set of > Unicode, as it was about physical entry of non-native text. For > example, on my (UK) keyboard, all of the printed keycaps are basically > used. And yet, I can't even enter accented letters from latin-1 with a > standard keypress, much less extended Unicode. Of course it's possible > to get those characters (either by specialised mappings in an editor, > or by using an application like Character Map) but there's nothing > guaranteed to work across all applications. That's a hardware and OS > limitation - the hardware only has so many keys to use, and the OS > (Windows, in my case) doesn't support global key mapping (at least not > to my knowledge, in a user-friendly manner - I'm excluding writing my > own keyboard driver :-)) My interest in East Asian experience is at > least in part because the "normal" character sets, as I understand it, > are big enough that it's impractical for a keyboard to include a > plausible basic range of characters, so I'm curious as to what the > physical process is for typing from a vocabulary of thousands of > characters on a sanely-sized keyboard. >
Just picking a nit, here, windows will happily let you do silly things like hook 14 keyboards up and let you map all of emoji to them. Sadly, this requires lua. > In mentioning emoji, my main point was that "average computer users" > are more and more likely to want to use emoji in general applications > (emails, web applications, even documents) - and if a sufficiently > general solution for that problem is found, it may provide a solution > for the general character-entry case. (Also, I couldn't resist the > irony of using a :-) smiley while referring to emoji...) But it may be > that app-specific solutions (e.g., the smiley menu in Skype) are > sufficient for that use case. Or the typical emoji user is likely to > be using a tablet/phone rather than a keyboard, and mobile OSes have > included an emoji menu in their on-screen keyboards. > > Coming back to a more mundane example, if I need to type a character > like é in an email, I currently need to reach for Character Map and > cut and paste it. The same is true if I have to type it into the > console. That's a sufficiently annoying stumbling block that I'm > inclined to avoid it - using clumsy workarounds like referring to "the > OP" rather than using their name. I'd be fairly concerned about > introducing non-ASCII syntax into Python while such stumbling blocks > remain - the amount of code typed outside of an editor (interactive > prompt, emails, web applications like Jupyter) mean that editor-based > workarounds like custom mappings are only a partial solution. > > But maybe you are right, and it's just my age showing. The fate of APL > probably isn't that relevant these days :-) (or ☺ if you prefer...) > > Paul > _______________________________________________ > Python-ideas mailing list > Python-ideas@python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas > Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/ _______________________________________________ Python-ideas mailing list Python-ideas@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
