Re: How-To handle i18n when you don't know charset?

From: 11digitboy@bolt.com
Date: Fri Jul 07 2000 - 17:26:13 EDT


--
Robert Lozyniak
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---- "Michael \(michka\) Kaplan" <michka@trigeminal.com> wrote: > I would not say that override should be impossible. > I was merely saying that > if the given charset is specified and is correct, > and you change it to > something invalid.... then it is their fault if > the results are bad. > > michka > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jonathan Rosenne" <rosenne@qsm.co.il> > To: "Unicode List" <unicode@unicode.org> > Sent: Friday, July 07, 2000 9:37 AM > Subject: RE: How-To handle i18n when you don't > know charset? > > > > Unfortunately, there are many Hebrew pages wrongly > marked as 8859-1, and > many more unmarked. So letting the user override > the charset specification > is necessary. I was told similar situations are > known in Russia and Greece. > > > > Jony > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: Antoine Leca [mailto:Antoine.Leca@renault.fr] > > > Sent: Friday, July 07, 2000 2:06 PM > > > To: Unicode List > > > Subject: Re: How-To handle i18n when you don't > know charset? > > > > > > > > > Michael Kaplan wrote: > > > > > > > > > My experimentation indicated that if the > user did not have > > > their browser > > > > > set to auto-select encoding, or if they > manually overrode the > encoding > > > > > selection, the form data would be sent > in whatever they had chosen, > > > > > regardless of what charset may be in the > <meta > > > http-equiv="Content-Type" > > > > > ...> in the HTML document head. > > > > > > > > My general feeling of people who specifically > change settings > > > so that the > > > > text was rendered properly and then they > specificically changed it is > as > > > > follows: > > > > > > > > THEY DESERVE WHATEVER THEY GET. > > > > > > My own experimentations (and large practice, > *UNFORTUNATELY*), is that > > > to have to manually specifying the encoding > is a hack, being there to > > > avoid the initial overview of authoring software > that does not enforce > > > an uniform *and* practical encoding scheme > (either "all should be > > > Unicode", > > > or "the day you use something outside ASCII, > it should be tagged"). > > > > > > Problem is worse in some cases (mainly Cyrillic), > because a number of > > > charsets are equaly in common use, mainly for > historical reasons. > > > And the behaviour of Microsoft in this area > is not necessary of help... > > > > > > > > > Now, most of the time I run with "default" > on. Sometimes, I need > > > to change. > > > And when I change, I let it in the changed > position (Yes, I'm quite > lazy), > > > unless there is a nuisance. So quite a time, > I am running in "changed" > > > position... > > > > > > > The GIGO (garbage in, garbage out ) philospophy > is the best way > > > to go here, > > > > IMHO. How much more can you do other than > provide a java applet > > > that will > > > > hav a big hand come out of the screen and > slap them silly? > > > > > > And *I* would be quite upset if, when I answer > in French (using French > > > accents) in an application that only proposes > English as UI and asks for > > > e.g. my profession, so I would be upset if > the application: > > > - either refuse to handle my accentuated profession > > > - or, perhaps worse, misinterprets it because > the server-side > > > insists on using > > > his charset instead of whatever character I > really need. > > > > > > But this is what happens every day, because > the (U.S. based) programmer > is > > > expecting everyone to use ASCII, of course. > Here we cannot > > > distinguish GIGO > > > for lazyness or plain ignorance. > > > > > > Now you take the case of my friend M. Lebœuf, > whom name includes a > > > character not easily available in common charsets, > trying to answer such > > > a form included in a iso-8859-1 html page... > I am not sure he will > > > appreciate to see his name considered as garbage... > > > ----------------------- Over here, his name looks like garbage. What is that? Ell ee bee something something you eff. ----------------------- > > > > > > Antoine > > > > > > > > >

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