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Bug 7381 - Clarify default encoding wording and add some examples for non-latin locales.
Summary: Clarify default encoding wording and add some examples for non-latin locales.
Status: CLOSED NEEDSINFO
Alias: None
Product: HTML WG
Classification: Unclassified
Component: pre-LC1 HTML5 spec (editor: Ian Hickson) (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Hardware: PC All
: P2 normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Ian 'Hixie' Hickson
QA Contact: HTML WG Bugzilla archive list
URL: http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview...
Whiteboard:
Keywords: NE
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2009-08-20 07:32 UTC by Maciej Stachowiak
Modified: 2010-10-04 14:56 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:


Attachments

Description Maciej Stachowiak 2009-08-20 07:32:25 UTC
Step 7 of the encoding algorithm says:

"Otherwise, return an implementation-defined or user-specified default character encoding, with the confidence tentative. In non-legacy environments, the more comprehensive UTF-8 encoding is recommended. Due to its use in legacy content, windows-1252 is recommended as a default in predominantly Western demographics instead. Since these encodings can in many cases be distinguished by inspection, a user agent may heuristically decide which to use as a default."

The I18N WG suggests wording along these lines:

"Otherwise, return an implementation-defined or user-specified default character encoding, with the confidence tentative. The UTF-8 encoding is recommended as a default. The default may also be set according to the expectations and predominant legacy content encodings for a given demographic or audience. For example, windows-1252 is recommended as the default encoding for Western European language environments. Other encodings may also be used. For example, "windows-949" might be an appropriate default in a Korean language runtime environment. "

Henri and I suggested striking the UTF-8 recommendation since it's not likely to be followed.
Comment 1 Ian 'Hixie' Hickson 2009-09-17 22:35:51 UTC
I don't really see what's wrong with the current text that is solved by the proposed text. Could you elaborate on what problem is being addressed here?
Comment 2 Ian 'Hixie' Hickson 2009-10-11 08:28:32 UTC
From e-mail:
> This email thread contains, in the opinion of the Internationalization 
> Core WG, the necessary elaboration. We think you should adopt verbatim
> either the text Richard proposed in:
>   
>   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2009Aug/1040.html
>   
> Or the slightly modified version I proposed in:
>   
>   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2009Aug/1051.html
> 
> ... both of which reference this bug.
> 
> Please let us know your thoughts on how to resolve this bug.
Comment 3 Ian 'Hixie' Hickson 2009-10-11 08:47:59 UTC
Responded in:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2009Oct/0281.html
Comment 4 Ian 'Hixie' Hickson 2009-11-02 23:10:50 UTC
I'd be happy to replace this table with a pointer to another document if such a document were to exist.
Comment 5 Maciej Stachowiak 2010-03-14 14:49:48 UTC
This bug predates the HTML Working Group Decision Policy.

If you are satisfied with the resolution of this bug, please change the state of this bug to CLOSED. If you have additional information and would like the editor to reconsider, please reopen this bug. If you would like to escalate the issue to the full HTML Working Group, please add the TrackerRequest keyword to this bug, and suggest title and text for the tracker issue; or you may create a tracker issue yourself, if you are able to do so. For more details, see this document:
  http://dev.w3.org/html5/decision-policy/decision-policy.html

This bug is now being moved to VERIFIED. Please respond within two weeks. If this bug is not closed, reopened or escalated within two weeks, it may be marked as NoReply and will no longer be considered a pending comment.