On Mon, Jan 21, 2002 at 02:20:17PM +0100, Marco Cimarosti wrote: > What this means in practice for website developers is: > > 1) SCSU text can only be edited with a text editor which properly decodes > the *whole* file on load and re-encodes it on save. On the other hand, UTF-8 > text can also be edited using an encoding-unaware editor, although non-ASCII > text is invisible.
True for users of Latin-based writing systems. Probably of little comfort to users of Indic or Chinese-based writing systems. Also, I've heard several complaints from translators working on Gnome and similar projects where they ended up with mixed Latin-1/UTF-8 because people edited the file with an encoding-unaware editor and didn't know better. Better to stick with editors that are aware of your encoding. > 2) SCSU text cannot be built by assembling binary pieces coming from > external sources. It's not really designed for that. If you're assembling things, just run the output through a UTF-8 to SCSU converter. > 3) A SCSU page can only be accepted by browsers and e-mail readers that are > able to decode it. On the other hand, UTF-8 also works on old ASCII-based > browsers, although non-ASCII text is clearly not properly displayed. Again, probably of little comfort to users of non-Latin scripts. The similar argument, that UTF-8 displays on virtually all recent mail readers and browsers and that SCSU displays on none, has much more impact. -- David Starner - [EMAIL PROTECTED], dvdeug/jabber.com (Jabber) Pointless website: http://dvdeug.dhis.org When the aliens come, when the deathrays hum, when the bombers bomb, we'll still be freakin' friends. - "Freakin' Friends"
