From: Charles Lindsey (chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk)
Date: Mon Feb 17 2003 - 12:11:04 CST
In <3E4FB790.6060404@Sonietta.blilly.com> Bruce Lilly <blilly@erols.com> writes:
>One cannot use any untagged 8-bit charset today with any reasonable
>expectation of it being understood, not only because of lack of
>support in readers and lack of compatibility with transport, but
>also because there simply is no way for the reader to determine
>*which* charset is in use for the typically short sequences that
>are used in header fields.
On the contrary, China has a larger population than any other country on
earth, and within that population there is a huge number (by Usenet
standards) of people who are not only using an untagged 8-bit charset, and
not only expecting it to be understood, but actually understanding it.
So it is evident that the support in readers _does_ exist, and no lack of
compatibility with transport seems to be holding them up. And there is a
very simple way for the reader to determine which charset is in use. If he
can read it, it is the one he wanted. If he cannot read it, he doesn't
care.
So what you say in the quoted paragraph is patently false. I wish it were
otherwise, for then our task would be rather easier :-( .
-- Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------ Tel: +44 161 436 6131 Fax: +44 161 436 6133 Web: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl Email: chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk Snail: 5 Clerewood Ave, CHEADLE, SK8 3JU, U.K. PGP: 2C15F1A9 Fingerprint: 73 6D C2 51 93 A0 01 E7 65 E8 64 7E 14 A4 AB A5