Those whose think switching UTF-8 based on locale settings should spend
some time with the Redhat bug database. RH 8 and 9 used an early
prerelease version of Perl 5.8.0, which did switch on fully UTF-8-ness
based on locale settings. This turned out to be quite a mess because
RH8/9 had *by default* such locales - *every* RH8/9 user was subjected
to full UTF-8, e.g. UTF-8 I/O.
Just to clarify this: it was just not the prerelease of 5.8.0 that had
this, also the final 5.8.0 had it. 5.8.1 and beyond don't.
--
Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi(_at_)iki(_dot_)fi> http://www.iki.fi/jhi/ "There is this
special
biologist word we use for 'stable'. It is 'dead'." -- Jack Cohen