Is dimensionality.string supposed to return an ascii string?

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum to be asking questions, but the mailing list seems to be for developers only.

Looking over the code, it appears that ``dimensionality.string`` is not intended to return ascii strings. I'm a little confused about the difference between format_units and format_units_unicode in markup.py.

In any case, it'd be nice to control the use of unicode without rebuilding. It seems this wouldn't be too difficult to do.

For example, if all instances of
>>> from .config import USE_UNICODE
were replaced with
>>> from . import config
(and uses of ``USE_UNICODE`` were replaced with ``config.USE_UNICODE``), then you could do

>>> import quantities as pq
>>> pq.config.USE_UNICODE = False

I'd understand if you considered this bad form (is this considered monkeypatching?).

Patch attached below for completeness, but it's really just the renaming that I mentioned above.

Cheers,
-Tony

=== modified file 'quantities/dimensionality.py'
--- quantities/dimensionality.py 2009-02-22 22:58:09 +0000
+++ quantities/dimensionality.py 2009-05-11 23:13:57 +0000
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@

 import numpy as np

-from .config import USE_UNICODE
+from . import config
 from .markup import format_units, format_units_unicode
 from .registry import unit_registry
 from .utilities import memoize
@@ -187,7 +187,7 @@
             % ', '.join(['%s: %s'% (u.name, e) for u, e in self.iteritems()])

     def __str__(self):
- if USE_UNICODE:
+ if config.USE_UNICODE:
             return self.unicode
         else:
             return self.string

=== modified file 'quantities/markup.py'
--- quantities/markup.py 2009-02-21 13:28:49 +0000
+++ quantities/markup.py 2009-05-11 23:13:56 +0000
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 import operator
 import re

-from .config import USE_UNICODE
+from . import config

 superscripts = ['⁰', '¹', '²', '³', '⁴', '⁵', '⁶', '⁷', '⁸', '⁹']

@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
     ]
     for key in keys:
         d = udict[key]
- if USE_UNICODE:
+ if config.USE_UNICODE:
             u = key.u_symbol
         else:
             u = key.symbol

=== modified file 'quantities/quantity.py'
--- quantities/quantity.py 2009-03-07 17:32:26 +0000
+++ quantities/quantity.py 2009-05-11 23:13:54 +0000
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@

 import numpy as np

-from .config import USE_UNICODE
+from . import config
 from .dimensionality import Dimensionality, p_dict
 from .registry import unit_registry
 from .utilities import with_doc
@@ -266,7 +266,7 @@

     @with_doc(np.ndarray.__str__)
     def __str__(self):
- if USE_UNICODE:
+ if config.USE_UNICODE:
             dims = self.dimensionality.unicode
         else:
             dims = self.dimensionality.string

=== modified file 'quantities/uncertainquantity.py'
--- quantities/uncertainquantity.py 2009-04-01 20:05:00 +0000
+++ quantities/uncertainquantity.py 2009-05-11 23:14:14 +0000
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@

 import numpy as np

-from .config import USE_UNICODE
+from . import config
 from .quantity import Quantity
 from .registry import unit_registry
 from .utilities import with_doc
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@

     @with_doc(Quantity.__str__, use_header=False)
     def __str__(self):
- if USE_UNICODE:
+ if config.USE_UNICODE:
             dims = self.dimensionality.unicode
         else:
             dims = self.dimensionality.string
@@ -189,7 +189,7 @@
             dims,
             str(self.uncertainty)
         )
- if USE_UNICODE:
+ if config.USE_UNICODE:
             return s.replace('+/-', '±').replace(' sigma', 'σ')
         return s

=== modified file 'quantities/unitquantity.py'
--- quantities/unitquantity.py 2009-02-21 13:28:49 +0000
+++ quantities/unitquantity.py 2009-05-11 23:14:14 +0000
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@

 import numpy

-from .config import USE_UNICODE
+from . import config
 from .dimensionality import Dimensionality
 from .markup import superscript
 from .quantity import Quantity, get_conversion_factor
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@
             ref = ''
         symbol = self._symbol
         symbol = ', %s'%(repr(symbol)) if symbol else ''
- if USE_UNICODE:
+ if config.USE_UNICODE:
             u_symbol = self._u_symbol
             u_symbol = ', %s'%(repr(u_symbol)) if u_symbol else ''
         else:
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@
     @with_doc(Quantity.__str__, use_header=False)
     def __str__(self):
         if self.u_symbol != self.name:
- if USE_UNICODE:
+ if config.USE_UNICODE:
                 s = '1 %s (%s)'%(self.u_symbol, self.name)
             else:
                 s = '1 %s (%s)'%(self.symbol, self.name)
@@ -337,7 +337,7 @@

     @property
     def name(self):
- if USE_UNICODE:
+ if config.USE_UNICODE:
             return '(%s)'%(superscript(self._name))
         else:
             return '(%s)'%self._name

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the question and for the suggested changes. I think you are right, this should be configurable. I'll add support so it can be modified in a threadsafe manner, and perhaps with an rc setting as well. I'll have to get back to you within a week or two, though.

Darren

This feature is available as of quantities-0.5.0