Ian Kelly <ian.g.ke...@gmail.com> writes: > On Thu, Nov 23, 2017 at 1:04 PM, Karsten Hilbert > <karsten.hilb...@gmx.net> wrote: > > Using function arguments written in Thai script ? > > > > Understanding, let alone being able to read, code written in Arabic > > ? > > People are going to write code in Arabic whether you like it or not, > because not everybody speaks English, and not everybody who does > *wants* to use it.
This is, I think, a good reason to allow Unicode identifiers (at least, those Unicode subsets which encode writing systems of languages) as programming-language identifiers. > Now, would you prefer to read code where the variable names are > written in Arabic script, or where the variable names are still in > Arabic but transliterated to Latin characters? (On the – evidently correct, in Karsten's case and mine – assumption that the reader does not understand Arabic script.) I've thought about this, and if the quesition is which would *I* prefer, the answer is I'd prefer the identifiers transliterated to the Latin (English-writing) characters. Because if I already can't understand the words, it will be more useful to me to be able to type them reliably at a keyboard, for replication, search, discussion with others about the code, etc. Set against that, though, I want the preferences of *others* to be taken into consideration also. And there are many more people who do not natively write English/Latin characters, that I want to feel welcome in the Python community. So it's a good thing that my own reading preference *does not* have weight in this matter. I'm not the primary audience for code identifiers written in Arabic script, so my preference should matter less than those who understand it. > Either way, you're not going to be able to understand it, so I'm not > sure why it makes a difference to you. I hope you can see that it can simultaneously make a difference – I would definitely prefer to read Latin-writing identifiers – while also being a lesser consideration that should not outweigh the benefits of allowing non-Latin-script identifiers. > If Arabic characters are allowed however, then it might be of use to > the people who are going to code in Arabic anyway. And if it isn't, > then they have the option not to use it either. This is a necessary consequence of increasing the diversity of people able to program in Python: people will express ideas originating in their own language, in Python code. For that diversity to increase, we English-fluent folk will necessarily become a smaller proportion of the programming community than we are today. That might be uncomfortable for us, but it is a necessary adaptation the community needs to undergo. -- \ “In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong | `\ with the majority than to be right alone.” —John Kenneth | _o__) Galbraith, 1989-07-28 | Ben Finney -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
