Re: UTF8

[der Mouse <mouse%Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA@localhost>]

> Please leave the file system issues out of it for now.

Okay.  The fundamental issues are the same anyway, as I see them.

>> Am I required to reject attempted non-ASCII strings in these places
>> for no reason other than an inability to know what the user intended
>> the character set - if any - to be?
> I'm assuming you're talking about the server implementation now
> (client side is comparatively trivial; convert input to utf8 based on
> the current $LC_CTYPE).

Hm?  I have no LC_CTYPE in my environment and have got by fine without
it for years.  The only places I've been able to think of that anything
knows that I'm using 8859-1 (which is what I use by default) are:

- The font I use to display text;
- The Content-Type: header my MUA is configured to default to;
- $LESSCHARDEF (and that just knows which characters are printable,
  basically; it couldn't tell you 8859-1 vs 8859-2);
- The mapping table between what I might loosely call compose sequences
  and octet values my text editor uses;
- The display substitutes my text editor uses when displaying non-ASCII
  text on an ASCII-only display;
- The non-ASCII keycodes I've chosen to xmodmap onto real keys on my
  keyboard in my X startup scripts;
- My own mind.

I don't know what I should set LC_CTYPE to to indicate 8859-1.  I don't
even know where to look to find that out - I don't use non-ASCII for
much beyond inter-human communication (eg email).

>> Given how common such systems are, it seems a bit odd that the IETF
>> would take a position so apparently incompatible with them.
> Do you have some numbers to back that up?  I've seen quite some
> number of unix systems, but as far as I can recall, I've *never* seen
> one where usernames and passwords used non-ascii characters.

Come to think of it, I've never seen one where they were actually used
(or where I knew they were used, at least - for example, I have known
very few passwords besides my own).  I don't know how many I've seen
where they would work if attempted.  I don't even recall hearing of
anyone attempting it, either, regardless of the outcome; I'll have to
ask the more internationalized of my friends.

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