Re: [PATCH] multibyte_identifiers: opt-in UTF-8 variable names (UAX #31 + NFC) behind a root-controlled system switch

Hi,


sounds like a good idea; it could also be useful in the field of education. For
me, the question is rather: Why should Bash continue to be limited to ASCII when
all other programming languages and shells have long been able to do this? So
far, I haven’t been able to find a truly technically sound answer here as to why
this shouldn’t be possible. The only thing I’ve been able to gather is the issue
of homoglyphs and security mechanisms to avoid confusion (but that’s hardly a
world-shattering revelation). There’s also the issue of backward compatibility,
but that should be resolved with an opt-in approach at the latest. In the next
Bash version, the feature could be made opt-in at first to allow for a
“preparation period,” and then switched to opt-out in the version after that,
for example. Admittedly, the added value may be minimal, but if the added value
were that minimal, ZSH, Bash (Windows), C/C++, and many others would hardly have
implemented something like this. Why would this feature offer added value in ZSH
environments but suddenly no longer do so in a GNU Bash environment (even though
the rest of the OS might be the same)? Given the complexity of the topic, it
could also be added to a long-term to-do list.
But thank you for not immediately nipping the topic in the bud—most of you here
have shown that you have the maturity to discuss even difficult topics.




Regards
Sebastian