Re: Character encoding (was Re: RSS 1.1)

> RSS 1.0 does not require UTF-8 encoding, nor should it. In fact the RSS
> 1.0 specification indicates that UTF-8 is the default, but other
> encodings can be specified, and specifies that the XML declaration is
> mandatory if another encoding is used:
>
> /Syntax:/ <?xml version="1.0"?>
> /Requirement:/ Optional (unless specifying encoding)

This is an XML thing, not something specific to RSS.  As it should be.

If an document does not declare and encoding it's to be interpreted as
UTF-8.  This is an XML requirement.  No document need state an encoding if
it's using UTF-8.  It can't "hurt" but it's not needed.  If an encoding
other than UTF-8 is being used it's REQUIRED that it be expressed as such.

Noting, however, that many folks misunderstand that numeric references are
ALWAYS from Unicode, not the document's encoding (if it's not unicode).  As
in, you can't express a windows-1252 smart quote using a &# numeric
reference.

I'm concerned that ill-informed discussions about encoding are going to
cause more trouble than it's worth.  What people assume about encoding is a
TREMENDOUS mess.  Talking about something being 'required' as UTF-8 is
fundamentally a VERY bad idea.  Stepping back to us-ascii is an even WORSE
idea.

If a document is in UTF-8, then it's done.  If it's us-ascii then it's
entirely reasonable to assume that it's utf-8.  If something wanted to be
pedantic about it then declaring it as such would be fine.  But it's not
needed.  The wording regarding encoding in Section 4 is wrong in enough ways
that it needs to be rewritten entirely.

This text should be DELETED completely: "Since US-ASCII is a subset of
UTF-8, users MAY use US-ASCII as the encoding for RSS 1.1 documents. An
explicit charset parameter MUST be used when serving an RSS 1.1 document as
anything other than US-ASCII. "

I also dislike the use of namespaces on the examples.  Naive users tend to
misunderstand them.  They're better left in the document heading instead.

I think this begs the question, however, of what are you expecting to be
handled by this?

-Bill Kearney
Syndic8.com





 
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