> Note about Python 3 added on 2019-09-09: Originally this article claimed that Python 3 guaranteed UTF-32 validity. This was in error. Python 3 guarantees that the units of the string stay within the Unicode code point range but does not guarantee the absence of surrogates. It not only allows unpaired surrogates, which might be explained by wishing to be compatible with the value space of potentially-invalid UTF-16, but Python 3 allows materializing even surrogate pairs, which is a truly bizarre design. The previous conclusions stand with the added conclusion that Python 3 is even more messed up than I thought!