[thelist] [TIP] - Use UTF-8 whenever possible, or get used to extra doses of caffeine.

[Chris at globet.com]

T.R.

[..]

> Why should not people who have keyboards that enter 
> characters with which they are quite comfortable from a 
> language with which they are comfortable be able to enter 
> those characters to access a URI? What is wrong with these 
> potential domains?
>    www.özçelik.com
>    www.περιχώρησις.com
>    www.православная.com

"Wrong" is abstract in this context. What is impractical about these potential domains is that it will be more difficult for migrants to access services and information when located in English speaking countries; of which there are many. There is a difference in practicality between providing correctly encoded (but non standard for the environment) output, and *requiring* correctly encoded (but non standard for the environment) input.

> Must the Internet be American-centred?

No, why? Using a certain character set has nothing to do with geographical boudaries. If you want to reach the broadest cross-section of the global population, then standardisation; not diversification; should be the goal.

See this article for a nice primer on encoding:

<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html>

All the above IMHO.

-- 
Chris Marsh
Web Developer
t: +44 20 8246 4804 x828
f: +44 20 8246 4808
e: chris at globet.com
w: http://www.globet.com/

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