> >> I assume that "the ISO standard" refers to ISO/IEC 8859-1 and
> >> possibly 8859-2 as well. Unicode is an ISO standard too (ISO/IEC
> >> 10646-1).
> >
> > So if my browser is set to ISO 8859-1 or ISO 8859-2, but a
> > Central Euopean or Western European site is only in
> Unicode, then all
> > will show up correctly?
>
> If your browser is old enough that it can only be "set to" a single
> character set, and this setting cannot be overridden by a "charset=X"
> tag in the HTML page, then no, it will not be displayed
> correctly. But
> this sort of rigidity is not present in modern browsers.
How does the CGI program know that the data submitted is of "charset=EUC-JP"
?
Raghu Kolluru, Software Engg.
GO.com | Walt Disney Internet Group
206-664-4267 | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Doug Ewell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Sunday, October 01, 2000 11:48 PM
> To: Unicode List
> Subject: Re: Major site in unicode?
>
>
> >> I assume that "the ISO standard" refers to ISO/IEC 8859-1 and
> >> possibly 8859-2 as well. Unicode is an ISO standard too (ISO/IEC
> >> 10646-1).
> >
> > So if my browser is set to ISO 8859-1 or ISO 8859-2, but a
> > Central Euopean or Western European site is only in
> Unicode, then all
> > will show up correctly?
>
> If your browser is old enough that it can only be "set to" a single
> character set, and this setting cannot be overridden by a "charset=X"
> tag in the HTML page, then no, it will not be displayed
> correctly. But
> this sort of rigidity is not present in modern browsers.
>
> >> The browser you are thinking of is Netscape Navigator (pre-4.7).
> >> Support for Unicode in all browsers is improving steadily,
> and as it
> >> does, your 'adamant' programmers will end up using Unicode-encoded
> >> sites without even realizing it.
> >
> > When? 5 years from now? As for using Unicode without realizing
> > it, what do you mean? If a Russian's browser is set to CP1251, what
> > happens if the site is in Unicode? At present he gets
> garbage. I've
> > tried the setting that automatically changes to the character set of
> > the page. Doesn't work very well. I think the character set
> > indication gets left out in many sites.
>
> Browsers are supposed to be able to switch automatically to the
> character set used by the target page, but they cannot necessarily do
> this blindly by auto-detecting the character set. It is
> supposed to be
> indicated by the page using the "charset=X" tag. Sites that do not do
> this are not giving browsers a fair chance to display the page
> properly. This is not the fault of Unicode or the browser, but of the
> HTML author.
>
> > I don't disagree with this. It's just at present
> moment, Netscape
> > and Explorer don't seem ready. What would really be needed is the
> > browser automatically detects the site as being in Unicode, and
> > switches to that character set. Then sites could switch
> over without
> > worry. That is not the case at the moment. So the user has to
> > change the character set himself.
>
> Try using a recent version of your favorite browser (IE version 5.0 or
> above, or NN version 4.7 or above).
>
> I think the real problem here is that you, your team, and your users
> in Russia are working with older versions of software that did not
> properly handle Unicode, and are assuming that newer versions will not
> support Unicode either. Thankfully, this is not the case.
>
> -Doug Ewell
> Fullerton, California
>
