Re: WOFF metadata - should we require (rather than recommend) the use of UTF-8?

On Tuesday, May 31, 2011, 11:59:48 AM, Jonathan wrote:

JK> Hello WG,

JK> The current text of the WOFF spec says:

JK>    The extended metadata MUST be well-formed XML encoded in UTF-8
JK> or UTF-16. The use of UTF-8 encoding is recommended.

JK> I'd like to suggest that we simplify this by requiring the use of
JK> UTF-8. I'm not aware that there has been any actual use of UTF-16
JK> for this purpose in deployed content, and mandating UTF-8 would
JK> mean that UAs wishing to do something with the metadata (such as
JK> present a "Font Info"  panel to the user) don't need to sniff the
JK> data to detect the encoding and then do an appropriate conversion.

JK> So I propose replacing the text quoted above with:

JK>    The extended metadata MUST be well-formed XML encoded in UTF-8.

JK> Comments?

I agree that this would be a useful simplification and would not affect any deployed content.





-- 
 Chris Lilley   Technical Director, Interaction Domain                 
 W3C Graphics Activity Lead, Fonts Activity Lead
 Co-Chair, W3C Hypertext CG
 Member, CSS, WebFonts, SVG Working Groups