Re: UTF-7 (was: RE: U+xxxx, U-xxxxxx, and the basics)

From: Adrian Havill (havill@turbolinux.co.jp)
Date: Thu Mar 09 2000 - 02:03:28 EST


On Wed, 8 Mar 2000, Kenneth Whistler wrote:
> > 3) Why would I choose to use UTF-8 or UTF-16 instead?
>
> You should choose UTF-8 (over UTF-7) if you need a byte-oriented
> encoding form. UTF-8 is widely used and is a sanctioned form of
> the standard.

No problems here. if all eight bits are available, UTF-8 is the way to
go. But what about 7-bit streams... or eight bit streams where only 7-bits
are safely available?

> But *please* do not create more instances of UTF-7 data. UTF-7 was a
> stillborn solution for a problem that has largely gone away.

Should we QP or Base64 an entire UTF-8 stream then when we need to
transmit a mostly ASCII text with a few non-ASCII characters? Or is UC
taking the stance that "streams less than 8-bits are not our concern--
implement/choose your own layer to transform the 16/8 bit UTF"?



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jul 10 2001 - 17:20:59 EDT