3 ms·

They should have an encoding standard for characters that are not in the standard character set. I've see base64 encoded images in CSS for a long time. Sure, it

They should have an encoding standard for characters that are not in the standard character set. I've see base64 encoded images in CSS for a long time. Sure, it takes up a lot of space, but isn't this the best of both worlds? Of course, the images could be SVG or a sort of typeface definition. It doesn't matter because it's base64 encoded. Of course, I'm not trivializing the problems with internationalization. I'm simply pointing out that there are simple solutions to some of the problems, such as this one. I think the biggest problem with character encoding is getting people to agree on a standard.

patio11 17y ago
I think the biggest problem with character encoding is getting people to agree on a standard. Prior to the Unicode standard springing into being, Japan had relatively little problem with agreeing on standards, by the simple expedient of agreeing on enough of them such that most stakeholders left the table with at least one they liked. People are sort of reluctant to leave these and the tangible benefits they offered, hence the lukewarm reception to Unicode. (If I hear tsk-tsking from any Americans on this point, just try to imagine how much adoption UTF-8 would have in the US if it didn't have the happy-and-totally-not-accidental property of working exactly like ASCII for the language American programmers and legacy systems/documents care about.) Sidenote: I was working on a translation of features of a particular software package today and had to think a little of how to explain mojibake, and why you'd want a servlet container that can detect and correct it, to an American audience. (It's when some program between the user and the server's application layer applies a heuristic incorrectly and results in one or the other getting complete gibberish.) The problem is every bit as fun to deal with as a developer and a user as you would expect it to be.
- jrockway 17y ago
  To be fair, the Unicode folks totally screwed over the Japanese. Now there are many people who can't even write their name on a computer. Needless to say, these people would rather use the "legacy" character sets that didn't have this problem.

patio11 17y ago

I think the biggest problem with character encoding is getting people to agree on a standard. Prior to the Unicode standard springing into being, Japan had relatively little problem with agreeing on standards, by the simple expedient of agreeing on enough of them such that most stakeholders left the table with at least one they liked. People are sort of reluctant to leave these and the tangible benefits they offered, hence the lukewarm reception to Unicode. (If I hear tsk-tsking from any Americans on this point, just try to imagine how much adoption UTF-8 would have in the US if it didn't have the happy-and-totally-not-accidental property of working exactly like ASCII for the language American programmers and legacy systems/documents care about.) Sidenote: I was working on a translation of features of a particular software package today and had to think a little of how to explain mojibake, and why you'd want a servlet container that can detect and correct it, to an American audience. (It's when some program between the user and the server's application layer applies a heuristic incorrectly and results in one or the other getting complete gibberish.) The problem is every bit as fun to deal with as a developer and a user as you would expect it to be.

jrockway 17y ago
To be fair, the Unicode folks totally screwed over the Japanese. Now there are many people who can't even write their name on a computer. Needless to say, these people would rather use the "legacy" character sets that didn't have this problem.