Re: [tlug] Japanese Encoding - which one?

[Uva Coder <uva.coder@example.com>]

On 11/26/05, Jim <jep200404@example.com> wrote:
>
> In many ways, Linux does not care what character set or coding
> is used. The character coding for names in the filesystem is
> the biggest that directly affects me. Many other things are
> mere application issues.
>
> By the way, by design, UTF-8 plays very well with UNIX/Linux
> standard I/O utilities, like grep, without changing those
> utilities.
>
> Since UTF-8 was invented by Ken Thompson, this was by design,
> not mere coincidence.
>
>    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8#Rationale_behind_UTF-8.27s_mechanics
>    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8#Advantages_and_disadvantages
>    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8#History
>

Yes, it is great to grep in a unicode environment. :-) It's even nice
to use UTF-8 aware troff. :-) I'm happy to see Linux distros adapt
over time and take on good ideas.

IMHO having UTF-8 as a standard is a great idea, especially dealing
with filesystems as you mentioned. Perhaps it would help pave the way
for plan9port[1] to become a standard linux package thus bringing with
it great utilities like vac[2], venti[3], factotum[4] to name a few.
:-) Anyway, UTF-8 appears to be a good starting point.

[1] http://swtch.com/plan9port/
[2]  http://plan9.bell-labs.com/magic/man2html/1/vac
[3]  http://plan9.bell-labs.com/magic/man2html/8/venti
[4]  http://swtch.com/plan9port/man/man4/factotum.html

--vic