ietf-822
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Re: Accept-Language: proposal

1997-06-13 13:16:56
On Fri, 13 Jun 1997 12:08:38 PDT, you said:
The existence of this header also indicates that the sender is capable
of handling text encoded in the utf-8 charset [RFC 2044], when properly
MIME labeled.

Umm.. yeah, but.. this may not do what you hope.

This AIX 4.2 box I'm typing on has *some* UFT-8 support.  However,
my MUA does not support it, nor do I have fonts to cover the entire UTF-8
space.

Also, remember that UTF-8 is only an *encoding* scheme.  It is *not* an
internationalization or localization scheme.  As such, things like currency
formats, date/time preferences, and sorting/collating issues are totally
not addressed.  If the person requests Cyrillic, what's the format of the
date?

Why are you implying UTF-8 support? What does this buy you?

Since this header is presumably only going to be generated by "new"
UA's, it is not unreasonable to require these "new" UA's to support
UTF-8.  The alternative of also negotiating acceptable charset is worse.

How about an alternative of "Return English if you can't supply in one of
the requested languages"?  This would eliminate a UTF-8 requirement, and
be more backward-compatible as well..
-- 
                                Valdis Kletnieks
                                Computer Systems Senior Engineer
                                Virginia Tech


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