From: "Joseph Boyle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Joesph,

> Software currently under development could use the identifiers for
choosing
> whether to require or emit BOM, like the file requirements checker I have
to
> write, and ICU/uconv.

Lets separate that into the two issuse it represents:

EMITTING: They could simply choose globally whether to emit the BOM or not.
If they wanted to get "fancy" they could have a command line option which
said whether to emit the bytes or not. But that is optional.

INCOMING TEXT: Trivial to simply chek. I say (once again) its THERE BYTES.
If hey are there then there is a BOM. Simple.

> The inability to update to one standard all possible consuming software
one
> might encounter (or for that matter human customers' opinions) is
precisely
> why producing and checking software has to handle both possibilities.

But the "both possibilities" are trivial adn its by no means dificult to do.
Having a good program that refuses to do a little work to handle three bytes
is like someone who runs a 100 mile marathon and then refuses to cross the
finish line because the line is yellor instead of white.

> What would you mean by "the right thing" as far as emitting BOM? Should
file
> conversion programs only allow output of non-BOM? (or with-BOM?) Or should
> they take the specification in an argument separate from the charset name?
> As said before this unnecessarily requires extra logic.

Already answered --- they can make a global decision, like notepad or other
programs do. Especially if the progammer finds the idea of setting it as a
huge hardship, they can skip that work and simply choose whether they want
it or not....

I plead with you -- keep it SIMPLE. :-)

MichKa


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