[Wikipedia-l] Switching everything to UTF-8

Tue Nov 18 20:01:57 UTC 2003

>From Wikitech-l:

Erik wrote:
>If UTF-8 has enough advantages (and many people seem 
>to think it does), then telling 2% of the userbase 
>that their browser is outdated and corrupts pages 
>when editing seems acceptable.

The pages will only get corrupted by their browsers
/if/ we switch to UTF-8! So why lock out 2% of our
user base just to make it a bit easier to have
non-Latin scripts on a Latin-based language wiki?
[NOTE: I agree that UTF-8 makes sense on meta though;
there the advantages /do/ outweigh the benefits.] But
if those 2% can be accommodated as is and we can have
UTF-8, then great. Otherwise my idea of having a
separate UTF-8-friendly edit window for language codes
would solve the language link problem (which, IMO, is
the only issue that has real merit here). 

Sorry, but as a long-time Linux desktop user I get a
bit pissed whenever somebody brings up the "only x%"
arguments. It is often used as an excuse to prevent me
from using certain websites. When I see "You need to
upgrade your browser" I leave and never come back. We
needn't repeat the "only x%" type of attitude here. 

-- mav

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