From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/21053 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Fran=E7ois_Pinard?= Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Re: More charset things Date: 08 Feb 1999 10:52:43 -0500 Sender: owner-ding@hpc.uh.edu Message-ID: References: <87d83qkyjf.fsf@pc-hrvoje.srce.hr> <87ognahyoh.fsf@pc-hrvoje.srce.hr> NNTP-Posting-Host: coloc-standby.netfonds.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1035159232 20993 80.91.224.250 (21 Oct 2002 00:13:52 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 00:13:52 +0000 (UTC) Return-Path: Original-Received: from spinoza.math.uh.edu (spinoza.math.uh.edu [129.7.128.18]) by sclp3.sclp.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id MAA20798 for ; Mon, 8 Feb 1999 12:55:59 -0500 (EST) Original-Received: from sina.hpc.uh.edu (lists@Sina.HPC.UH.EDU [129.7.3.5]) by spinoza.math.uh.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id LAB06415; Mon, 8 Feb 1999 11:54:50 -0600 (CST) Original-Received: by sina.hpc.uh.edu (TLB v0.09a (1.20 tibbs 1996/10/09 22:03:07)); Mon, 08 Feb 1999 11:55:19 -0600 (CST) Original-Received: from sclp3.sclp.com (root@sclp3.sclp.com [204.252.123.139]) by sina.hpc.uh.edu (8.7.3/8.7.3) with ESMTP id LAA23338 for ; Mon, 8 Feb 1999 11:55:09 -0600 (CST) Original-Received: from jupiter.rtsq.qc.ca (rtsq.grics.qc.ca [199.84.132.81]) by sclp3.sclp.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id MAA20759 for ; Mon, 8 Feb 1999 12:54:57 -0500 (EST) Original-Received: from ariel.progiciels-bpi.ca by jupiter.rtsq.qc.ca (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id MAA13529 for <@jupiter.rtsq.qc.ca:ding@gnus.org>; Mon, 8 Feb 1999 12:54:06 -0500 Original-Received: from iro.umontreal.ca (uucp@localhost) by ariel.progiciels-bpi.ca (950413.SGI.8.6.12/950213.SGI) via UUCP id MAA21234 for ding@gnus.org; Mon, 8 Feb 1999 12:55:40 -0800 Original-Received: from titan.progiciels-bpi.ca.progiciels-bpi.ca by icule.progiciels-bpi.ca (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id KAA01427; Mon, 8 Feb 1999 10:52:45 -0500 Original-To: "(ding)" X-Face: "b_m|CE6#'Q8fliQrwHl9K,]PA_o'*S~Dva{~b1n*)K*A(BIwQW.:LY?t4~xhYka_.LV?Qq `}X|71X0ea&H]9Dsk!`kxBXlG;q$mLfv_vtaHK_rHFKu]4'<*LWCyUe@ZcI6"*wB5M@[m writes: > base64 is an encoding scheme (comparable to uuencode). UTF-8 is a > character set (comparable to ISO-8859-1). They have nothing in common, > at least not the way you are thinking of it. UTF-8 is an encoding scheme, comparable to uuencode. But it is currently used to encode one and only character set, the UCS (described in Unicode manuals and within ISO 10646). But theoretically, it could well be used to encode other things. Because the UTF-8 encoding scheme is used for only one charset, it is common to consider that it is a charset itself, but this is a conceptual abuse. I have nothing against relying on this abuse, which is quite handy, as long as we do not loose sight of the real thing. UTF-8 is not a charset, in the deep nature of things. :-) That is why Lars could well decide, one of these days, to support UTF-8 as an encoding (which it really is) on the same level as Base64, and moreover, rather fun to implement. It might be convenient that Gnus do so as a contribution to the Unicode effort, without really waiting for Emacs to do it. The sad aspect of things is that, for orthogonality reasons, Gnus should then support UTF-7 as well, and this one, being sensibly uglier internally, is not as much fun. -- François Pinard mailto:pinard@iro.umontreal.ca Join the free Translation Project! http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~pinard