New Text Format Discussion

I had a look at the new format file.

Just a little note:
format-v2.txt>  Timestamps will be stored in GMT.
Comment: This is not wrong but it is worth noting that "epoch" time 
values are per se universal and have never anything to do with locale 
specific time-zones. (It took me a hard time understanding this, but 
it's true! ;) ) So there is nothing like a time-zone specific epoch 
timestamp.

MAIN TOPIC: TEXT FORMAT IN UTF-8

Interesting that the new text format is not yet implemented. This gives 
perhaps a chance for reconsideration.
It came to my mind that there might be a way to make any ugly user 
option superfluous. If you dublicate all text formated field types (5 by 
number) and create new types for Unicode text you could have parallel 
editions of old and new formats in one file. The only negative 
consequence is that records modified in new version cannot be read in 
old program versions (fields will render blank in this case).

Example:
old:  type = 0x4, Username, local default charset
new: type = 0x14, Username, utf-8

Upon reading a record, algorithms prefer 0x14 and if failing access 0x4. 
They always know how to interpret which.
Upon writing, algorithms prefer 0x14, and if detecting 0x4 erase it. In 
consequence this allows a "smooth" migration into the new format without 
the user even noticing it.

It would inflate the type list considerably but left the application 
free of user options concerning character-sets. For interpreting 
algorithms is seems even more attractive to stay within one record's 
data than to need make reference to outward data like the dreadful user 
option.

Perhaps it's worth a thought!

- Wolfgang


Rony Shapiro wrote:

>Folks,
>
>Thanks for the reminder. I've updated the format document (formatV2.txt)
>with these comments, plus some additions to better reflect the current
>status.
>
>	Cheers,
>
>		Rony 
>
>  
>
>  
>


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