Re: Diacritical marks in array don't translate

Robert wrote:

> Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:
>> Robert wrote:
>>> The problem that you are probably having is that the encoding that your
>>> html and/or javascript is saved is in a different encoding than the
>>> encoding you specified in your HTML. Or maybe you forgot to specify the
>>> encoding and the encoding is wrongly auto-detected.
>>>
>>> The most useuful encoding in your case is probably UTF-8.
>>> So makes sure you have this in your header:
>>> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
>>
>> Utter nonsense.
>
> What part is utter nonsense?
>
>> First, the above (which cannot be part of the [HTTP] header, but of
>> the `head' element) will not suffice, the HTTP Content-Type header is
>> important.
>
> As can clearly seen by the syntax I was talking about HTML and not the
> header transmitted by a server.

There is no such thing as a HTML header. There is the HTML `head'
element, which is a completely different thing. To call the latter
a "header" is inappropriate.

> To my knowledge the content-type of the HTML file overrides the one
> given by the webserver. However I may be wrong about this and therefore
> made no comment about it before.

It MAY override the default (before serving), there is no MUST.
HTML 4.01, section 7.4.4, clearly states that:

,-<http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/global.html#h-7.4.4.2>
|
| The http-equiv attribute can be used in place of the name attribute and
| has a special significance when documents are retrieved via the Hypertext
| Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTP servers may use the property name specified
| by the http-equiv attribute to create an [RFC822]-style header in the HTTP
| response.

Most notably, the HTML 4.01 Specification does _not_ state that user agents
MUST or MAY allow the Content-Type header to be overridden by the `meta'
element _after_ the document was served with a different header value.

> It does not change the fact that as a good author you must provide the
> content-type in your webpage.

For possible future non-HTTP use. Yes, indeed.

>> Second, UTF-8, especially the German umlauts in it, is
>> not compatible to ISO-8859-* (encoding is different),
>
> Where exactly did you see me write that these are compatible?

Your statement is written in a way that is looks like as if the
OP does not have the choice. You have been proposing the more
complicated way when there is a simpler and still compliant one
which I consider a Bad Thing, especially when addressing a newbie.

> > > Next make sure that your html/javascript file is in UTF-8 format.
> >
> > He does not need to and should not want to if not necessary.
> > ISO-8859-1(5) will suffice and will be more widely supported.
>
> There is huge support for Unicode.

Especially on the Web, one has to consider to be backwards compatible.
There are used UAs out there which does not support Unicode, so it is
unwise to use or recommend that if not needed. And it is certainly
not needed here.

> Don't make yourself look ridiculous by saying something is utter
> nonsense.

I may have been a bit harsh but proposing to declare UTF-8 and using
an Unicode-compatible editor where ISO-8859-* and any text editor
sufficed seemed rather quite ridiculous to me.

> Unicode is very important.

Unicode is very important, I did not and do not doubt that. However,
using and recommending it without thinking of the ramifications of its
use only makes matters worse.


Regards,
PointedEars
.

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