beginner - py unicode Q

[enquiring mind]

I read the posting by Rehceb Rotkiv and response but don't know if it
relates to my problem in any way.

I only want to write German to the screen/console for little German
programs/exercises in python. No file w/r will be used.

#! /usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
# Filename: 7P07png.py
# SUSE Linux 10 Python 2.4.1 gedit 2.12.0

print 'Ich zähle zwölf weiß Hüte.'
print 'Wollen Sie'
verbs = ( 'kömmen' , 'essen' , 'trinken' )
print verbs[:3]

print ' program ends '

console display is: Ich zähle zwölf weiß Hüte.
Wollen Sie
('k\xc3\xb6mmen ', 'essen', 'trinken')
program ends

The first 2 print statements in German print perfectly to screen/console
but not the 3rd.

I ran it with these lines below from Rehceb Rotkiv's code but it did not
fix problem.
import sys
import codecs

I also tried unicode string u'kömmen', but it did not fix problem.
Any help/direction would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I found this reference section but I am not sure it applies or how to
use it to solve my problem.:

This built in setdefaultencod ing(name) sets the default codec used to
encode and decode Unicode and string objects (normally ascii)and is
meant to be called only from sitecustomize.p y at program startup; the
site module them removes this attribute from sys. You can call
reload(sys) to make this attriute available again but this is not a good
programming practice.

I just thought of this. I suppose because this is py source code, it
should not be German but a reference/key to u'strings' to print German
text to the screen?

The ultimate console output I seek, of course, using a while or for loop
and/or random access for second verb, for example:
Wollen Sie kömmen?
Wollen Sie essen?
Wollen Sie trinken?

[John Machin]

Re: beginner - py unicode Q

On Apr 8, 9:51 am, enquiring mind <braind...@brai ndead.comwrote:

I read the posting by Rehceb Rotkiv and response but don't know if it
relates to my problem in any way.
>
I only want to write German to the screen/console for little German
programs/exercises in python. No file w/r will be used.
>
#! /usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
# Filename: 7P07png.py
# SUSE Linux 10 Python 2.4.1 gedit 2.12.0
>
print 'Ich zähle zwölf weiß Hüte.'
print 'Wollen Sie'
verbs = ( 'kömmen' , 'essen' , 'trinken' )
print verbs[:3]

Note: the [:3] is redundant. "print verbs" would have the same effect.

When you do print list_tuple_dict _etc, Python prints the repr() of
each element. You are seeing repr('kömmen'). This is great for
debugging, to see exactly what you've got (\xc3\xb6 is the utf8
encoding for small o with diaeresis (aka umlaut)) but no so great for
presentation to the user.

To see the difference, insert here:
for v in verbs:
print v
print str(v)
print repr(v)

>
print ' program ends '
>
console display is: Ich zähle zwölf weiß Hüte.
Wollen Sie
('k\xc3\xb6mmen ', 'essen', 'trinken')
program ends
>
The first 2 print statements in German print perfectly to screen/console
but not the 3rd.
>
I ran it with these lines below from Rehceb Rotkiv's code but it did not
fix problem.
import sys
import codecs

Importing modules without using them is pointless.

>
I also tried unicode string u'kömmen', but it did not fix problem.
Any help/direction would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
>
I found this reference section but I am not sure it applies or how to
use it to solve my problem.:

It doesn't solve your problem. Forget you ever read it.

>
This built in setdefaultencod ing(name) sets the default codec used to
encode and decode Unicode and string objects (normally ascii)and is
meant to be called only from sitecustomize.p y at program startup; the
site module them removes this attribute from sys. You can call
reload(sys) to make this attriute available again but this is not a good
programming practice.
>
I just thought of this. I suppose because this is py source code, it
should not be German but a reference/key to u'strings' to print German
text to the screen?

It's "German" only to a human who reads the console output and
recognizes the bunches of characters as representing German words/
phrases/sentences. Python and your computer see only utf8 encoding
(which can be used to represent multiple languages all at once on the
same screen or in the same paragraph of a document).

Your console is quite happy rendering utf8 e.g. it printed "Ich zähle
zwölf weiß Hüte" OK, didn't it? Try this:

print "blahblah"
print u"blahblah".enc ode('utf8')
print u"blahblah"

and see what happens.

HTH,
John

[Gabriel Genellina]

Re: beginner - py unicode Q

enquiring mind wrote:

I read the posting by Rehceb Rotkiv and response but don't know if it
relates to my problem in any way.
>
I only want to write German to the screen/console for little German
programs/exercises in python. No file w/r will be used.
>
#! /usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
# Filename: 7P07png.py
# SUSE Linux 10 Python 2.4.1 gedit 2.12.0
>
print 'Ich zähle zwölf weiß Hüte.'
print 'Wollen Sie'
verbs = ( 'kömmen' , 'essen' , 'trinken' )
print verbs[:3]
>
print ' program ends '
>
console display is: Ich zähle zwölf weiß Hüte.
Wollen Sie
('k\xc3\xb6mmen ', 'essen', 'trinken')
program ends
>
The first 2 print statements in German print perfectly to screen/console
but not the 3rd.

In the 3rd you don't print a string, you print a tuple. Python
internally uses repr() on each item, joins them using "," and puts
parenthesis around the whole thing.
That's not usually what you want; that representation is good for
debugging. (See below)

I also tried unicode string u'kömmen', but it did not fix problem.

Working in Unicode may be useful, but it's not your current problem.

I found this reference section but I am not sure it applies or how to
use it to solve my problem.:

Forget about setdefaultencod ing!

I just thought of this. I suppose because this is py source code, it
should not be German but a reference/key to u'strings' to print German
text to the screen?

No...

The ultimate console output I seek, of course, using a while or for loop
and/or random access for second verb, for example:
Wollen Sie kömmen?
Wollen Sie essen?
Wollen Sie trinken?

Had you tried this before, you would have no problems.

for verb in verbs:
print 'Wollen Sie', verb, '?'

This way you print an individual item, and you can control exactly how
you like it displayed. Another way:

for verb in verbs:
print 'Wollen Sie %s?' % verb

--
Gabriel Genellina