8 ms·

This is such an odd comment. You can't just "turn off" Unicode (because you can't turn off a standard). You could refuse to render any file encoded in UTF8, UT

This is such an odd comment. You can't just "turn off" Unicode (because you can't turn off a standard). You could refuse to render any file encoded in UTF8, UTF16 etc. but that would be silly because by now, most files you're going to encounter (especially as a developer) use one of these encodings. Or you could refuse to render anything outside of the ASCII range but then you're just assuming that the English-speaking world is all there is and that people of other language communities don't also have needs (such as having their name displayed properly). That's a pretty myopic view of the world IMHO.

ShowalkKama 3y ago
yeah but I dont't speak their language and I don't interact with them. I never installed fonts for asian characters on my pc and it hasn't affected me whatsoever. My terminal (which is what I use to manage files) also doesn't support right to left text and it has __never__ been an issue.
- Tainnor 3y ago
  > yeah but I dont't speak their language and I don't interact with them. Pretty sure you're interacting with lots of people on this website who aren't English native speakers. > I never installed fonts for asian characters on my pc and it hasn't affected me whatsoever. My terminal (which is what I use to manage files) also doesn't support right to left text and it has __never__ been an issue. That's not "turning off Unicode", that's just not installing fonts that deal with certain character ranges. Pretty sure whatever font you're using does support more than just bare ASCII, though.
  - DiggyJohnson 3y ago
    We're all speaking English on this website though? Look I take both of your points, but this seems like a weak argument.
    - Tainnor 3y ago
      People in this very thread have used non-ASCII characters? If people are going to mention local issues like the name of a certain politician (or even something like mathematics, with its special characters), non-ASCII characters are going to pop up. It's really not that hard to find non-ASCII comments on this website. Should such comments just not be rendered or what's your suggestion?
jgeada 3y ago
For reference, my actual name and original languages cannot be spelled without some Unicode. And I am still the OP that said I'd prefer to turn Unicode off, or at very least have very tight leash on what it is allowed to do The reasoning is that my primary computer use is in a single language. I very very rarely need to have my computer understand and present to me multiple different languages, and never languages that follow different rules. Anytime such a thing occurs: a) it is not a language I understand, so not rendering it is fine & safe b) someone is playing games with Unicode to try to trick me. Definitely not rendering is fine and rendering is actually dangerous c) the most rare case: the other language is relevant. The only times this has happened (talking to my family and whatnot), it is local to a specific app and I only want that app to deal with the other languages. The problem is that in the interest of satisfying every language group, my computers assume I care about all languages. I don't, I only speak/read 4 languages and everything else is no use being presented to me. If I'm an outlier, I'm an outlier for being fluent in more than a single language. For most all users, having the system limited to presenting a single language would significantly reduce the attack surface.
- Tainnor 3y ago
  So how should that work? Every person who uses a computer has to manually configure what kinds of characters they want rendered?

ShowalkKama 3y ago

yeah but I dont't speak their language and I don't interact with them. I never installed fonts for asian characters on my pc and it hasn't affected me whatsoever. My terminal (which is what I use to manage files) also doesn't support right to left text and it has __never__ been an issue.

Tainnor 3y ago
> yeah but I dont't speak their language and I don't interact with them. Pretty sure you're interacting with lots of people on this website who aren't English native speakers. > I never installed fonts for asian characters on my pc and it hasn't affected me whatsoever. My terminal (which is what I use to manage files) also doesn't support right to left text and it has __never__ been an issue. That's not "turning off Unicode", that's just not installing fonts that deal with certain character ranges. Pretty sure whatever font you're using does support more than just bare ASCII, though.
- DiggyJohnson 3y ago
  We're all speaking English on this website though? Look I take both of your points, but this seems like a weak argument.
  - Tainnor 3y ago
    People in this very thread have used non-ASCII characters? If people are going to mention local issues like the name of a certain politician (or even something like mathematics, with its special characters), non-ASCII characters are going to pop up. It's really not that hard to find non-ASCII comments on this website. Should such comments just not be rendered or what's your suggestion?

jgeada 3y ago

For reference, my actual name and original languages cannot be spelled without some Unicode. And I am still the OP that said I'd prefer to turn Unicode off, or at very least have very tight leash on what it is allowed to do The reasoning is that my primary computer use is in a single language. I very very rarely need to have my computer understand and present to me multiple different languages, and never languages that follow different rules. Anytime such a thing occurs: a) it is not a language I understand, so not rendering it is fine & safe b) someone is playing games with Unicode to try to trick me. Definitely not rendering is fine and rendering is actually dangerous c) the most rare case: the other language is relevant. The only times this has happened (talking to my family and whatnot), it is local to a specific app and I only want that app to deal with the other languages. The problem is that in the interest of satisfying every language group, my computers assume I care about all languages. I don't, I only speak/read 4 languages and everything else is no use being presented to me. If I'm an outlier, I'm an outlier for being fluent in more than a single language. For most all users, having the system limited to presenting a single language would significantly reduce the attack surface.

Tainnor 3y ago
So how should that work? Every person who uses a computer has to manually configure what kinds of characters they want rendered?