Hi Mikhail, On Wed, Feb 02, 2005 at 12:26:15 -0500, Mikhail Teterin wrote:
> [Dear developers! This is my conversation with Eike regarding an encoding > used > for the translation files in OOo. To clarify: this was about i18npool's *.xml locale data files, not resource files. > I'm advocating the use of 8-bit native > charsets, while Eike insists on using UTF-8 for all. Eike suggested, I take > this to your list.] > > > > So, the same for computers, but harder for people. Sounds like my way is > > > better. UTF-8 only makes sense, when charsets need to be mixed -- not in > > > this case. > > > Changing encodings would also make use of ref="..." references harder, > > one would always have to check that encodings match, and changing > > encoding of one file might affect others, which is not a desirable > > situation. > > Sorry, I don't understand this. Can you explain? The locale data files use a ref="..." mechanism to refer data of other locales, for example the gl_ES.xml contains <LC_CTYPE ref="es_ES"/> <LC_COLLATION ref="en_US"/> <LC_SEARCH ref="en_US"/> <LC_INDEX ref="es_ES"/> <LC_CURRENCY ref="es_ES"/> <LC_TRANSLITERATION ref="en_US"/> <LC_NumberingLevel ref="en_US"/> <LC_OutLineNumberingLevel ref="en_US"/> Now if gl_ES.xml and en_US.xml or es_ES.xml used different encodings this might not work anymore if also replaceTo="..." was used (it isn't in the case of gl_ES) and the maintainer copied an encoded replaceFrom="..." value from the referred file without noticing it was a different encoding. This may sound hypothetical but it is possible and can be prevented by sticking to one encoding only. > > > The uniformity here is hardly advantageous -- these files are, by their > > > very nature, maintained by different people, > > > > which in itself, viewed in context of ref="..." uses, almost forbids any > > other encoding than UTF-8 > > Why? Western Europeans will use iso8859-1, Eastern -- some KOI8 derivative, > etc. They will almost never need to cooperate -- within one file Yes, almost never. Which makes it a perfect candidate for always be prepared for it. > > Installation of the GNU recode package should be always possible, even > > on the oldest machine. > > Everything is possible, of course. I maintain, that gratuitious use of UTF is > inelegant -- if the file format allows to stick to 8-bit encodings, using a > multibyte one is wrong. Now please take a look at my situation as a maintainer of all these files, if I would have to switch back and forth between encodings for each and every file I edit it would soon annoy me. > If I can not `vi' it, it ain't a text-file :-) Use vim, that handles utf-8 ;-) Eike P.S.: Please consider to subscribe to the mailing lists you're posting to. By doing so you won't miss replies that are directed to the list only. Please reply only to the list, not to my personal account. Thanks. -- OOo/SO Calc core developer. Number formatter bedevilled I18N transpositionizer. GnuPG key 0x293C05FD: 997A 4C60 CE41 0149 0DB3 9E96 2F1A D073 293C 05FD --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
