Re: How much utf-8 do we accept in control files?
* Siggy Brentrup (bsb@debian.org) [040406 10:25]:
> On Mon, Apr 05, 2004 at 10:43:59PM +0200, Andreas Barth wrote:
> > currently, there are a quite some requests open how much utf-8 is
> > acceptable in control-files. Currently at least the following
> > requests are open:
>
> > #99324: Default charset should be UTF-8
> > #142164: Packages files should be in UTF-8
> > #208011: [PROPOSAL] UTF-8 encoding for debian/control
> > #241333: policy mentions that changelogs should be utf-8; this is a bug
>
> > Furthermore, some maintainers use already utf-8 for their name (this
> > means in debian/control and in the changelog).
> While understandable from the maintainer's point of view, luckily to
> my knowledge no (e.g.) asian maintainer has done it yet. If we allow
> non ascii in control fields, I see no valid argument to prohibit any
> character set.
Well, utf-8 is a meta-character-set, so we can restrict to utf-8 as
any character can be displayed as utf-8.
> > It seems quite obvious to me that we shouldn't switch to utf-8 in the control
> > files before release of sarge. However, it seems also obvious to me that we
> > won't escape allowing utf-8 in the long run. Therefor, I'd suggest to
> > officially allow utf-8 (but encourage to stick to ascii) in the control
> > files after release of sarge, and till then allow utf-8 only for the
> > maintainer/uploader name (as the current use is).
> With utf-8 in changelogs either you see some junk or you are forced to
> install fonts you'd otherwise never use.
An utf-8-enhanced client could also just display a ? if he has not
that character.
> > I'd like to hear your opinions on that.
> IMHO, if we go that route we must localize control files
Can you prove why we must localize control files?
Cheers,
Andi
--
http://home.arcor.de/andreas-barth/
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