Holger Metzger wrote:

 > UTF-8 might be the easiest choice, but many mail/newsreaders out
 > there  might have compatibility problems with it.


I also added "some" comments/suggestions to the bug at:
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=109342

If UTF-8 supports the special characters of most countries and if UTF-8
has been designated by the powers that be to become the desired 
standard, then we should support this forward looking approach. I 
suggest to bring up a window when there are special characters that 
asks/informs (incl. "[ ]ask next time") to use UTF-8.

The only two reasons against this that were presented were:

1. Some mail readers don't handle UTF-8.
Why not? Is it difficult to implement? If not, then tough sh**t. The
programmers should update their software pronto or loose those clients 
who want to send/read special characters.

2. Some people don't have a choice to upgrade their software?
Huh! Who? Employees of companies with paranoid & deaf IT personnel (they
exist)? Then the employees need to tell the IT what they need. The IT is 
there to serve the needs of the employees, not the other way around.

I don't think this will be a problem if the solution (an UTF-8 capable 
mail proggy) is sufficiently publicised.

BTW. How badly mangled would the text be if it is sent UTF-8 and
received by a iso-8859-1 only reader? If the answer is "not much", then 
let's move *forward*.

PS. Netscape can always bring out NC4.79 with UTF-8 support ;)
-- 

Regards,

Peter Lairo


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