Re: do all browsers support UTF-8 encoding???

From: Doug Ewell (dewell@compuserve.com)
Date: Wed Oct 04 2000 - 11:40:34 EDT


Sandeep Krishna <sandeepkrishna@noida.hcltech.com> wrote:

> can someone tell me whether all browsers (atleast IE 2,3.0 and
> Netscape...) support encoding/deocding on UTF-8....

I can tell you from experience that IE 3.0 does *not* support UTF-8.
(I still have it at home for some strange CompuServe-related reason.)
At work, where I do most of my Web access, I use Netscape 4.7 and
occasionally IE 5.0, both of which support UTF-8 very well.

> THis info. is crucial as i expect all users (of the site) to be
> capable of using only UTF-8 encoding.......
> so if there is a user whose browser doesnt support UTF-8 or it
> supports Big 5 but not UTF-8 then this is trouble..........

You can never be guaranteed that *every* potential user will be using a
sufficiently new browser. There are probably still some browsers out
there that don't even support tables. The solution is to provide a
link to the Microsoft or Netscape (or other) Web site where they can
download an update. (I know it is my responsibility to update my IE
3.0 at home, not everyone else's responsibility to limit their sites to
features that IE 3.0 can handle.)

-Doug Ewell
 Fullerton, California

(Note to Sandeep and others: one question mark '?' is sufficient.)



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