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

Chris at globet.com Chris at globet.com
Fri May 12 07:31:30 CDT 2006


T.R.

[..]

> > "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.
> 
> ISTM that migrants located in English speaking countries who 
> are computer literate will either have a computer configured 

I suspect that the assumption that migrants will be computer-literate is flawed, especially for those seeking asylum or refuge.

> to run in the native language or at least the ability to 
> switch keyboards.

This is simply impractical for non-computer literate users who are desperately trying to keep in touch with friends and family, and retain some sort of connection to their culture through internet cafes. Anecdotally, this would be a large proportion of migrants in certain areas of London at least.

> Also, since migrants located in English 
> speaking countries will always be a minority, it seems 
> unreasonably restrictive to compel the users of a language to 
> limit their URIs to the characters found in the English alphabet.

It's not a matter of restricting what other people do (this is not governmental foreign policy, after all), it's understanding the consequences of adopting non-standard practices. If you use extended characters in a domain, practically speaking you will be denying the resource to members of your country/culture who have migrated elsewhere. If you do not use extended characters in your domain, you increase the geographical/cultural area from which your resources can be accessed. This discussion has nothing to do with *output*; using the correct encoding you can ensure that you provide your content in any character set you choose.

> > > 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.
> 
> ISTM the standardisation for URIs ought to be UTF. I think it 
> reasonable to assume that English-only speakers will have no 
> interest in visiting URIs they cannot even type such as 
> özçelik.com, and if they are interested they will know how to 
> use an alternate keyboard.

I think it *unreasonable* to assume this, but YMMV. The idea with input is to standardise to make things easier, not diversify to make things harder. When a less restrictive input medium than the keyboard emerges, then I'm sure things will change.

> > See this article for a nice primer on encoding:
> >
> > <http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html>
> 
> Thanks. It is a good primer.

Yes, on a side note Joel has a lot of very good articles (IMO) - it's worth checking out the rest of the website if your have time.

[..]

Again, all the above is 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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