Although John's comments are correct in so far as they go, it should be clear
that John and I do represent different camps.
For the record, I'm against 8-bit character oriented transport too, on the
grounds that:
. it is going to be a lot of work to get things interoperable with extant
7-bit software
. it is West-Euro-centric
. it does not solve the general problem of international character sets
. it merely includes Western Europeans in the privileged class of those who
don't have to worry about the problem of international characters.
The first reason is the technical reason; the others are moral reasons.
Unlike some, I see nothing magic in 8-bit datums as opposed to 7-bit, 36-bit,
9-bit, 14-bit, 15-bit, etc. I don't think the limited benefits of 8-bit
transport are worth the cost.