Re: Getting ready for a release

["Pavel Tsekov" <ptsekov gmx net>]

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Tue, 4 Sep 2007 16:41:00 +0200
> Von: wwp
> An: mc gnome org
> Betreff: Re: Getting ready for a release

> Hello Egmont,
>
>
> On Tue, 4 Sep 2007 16:16:44 +0200 Egmont Koblinger <egmont uhulinux hu>
> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Sep 04, 2007 at 03:20:10PM +0200, Pavel Tsekov wrote:
> >
> > > Lack of UTF-8 support is a big minus on the part of MC, but I think
> that
> > > your statement is a bit overestimated. It's more like MC is not
> following the latest trend, IMO.
> > I wouldn't call it 'trend'. Having splash screens, animated widgets,
> > translucent windows, using ajax on the web, blogging etc etc etc. are
> > trends. UTF-8 is the one and only known and sane way of handling all the
> > non-english scripts, hence it's a technical decision. Moreover, mc not
> > supporting UTF-8 doesn't just mean "it doesn't follow trends", it means
> it's
> > not _working_ correctly in most Linux systems - and that's more serious.
> >
> > As said, modern distros use UTF-8. If you switch back to an 8-bit locale
> > just for mc, you'll have troubles with your text files' content, with
> > filenames etc. - mc will not be compatible with all the other apps. If
> you
> > switch back globally for your system, you'll only be able to use a very
> > small subset of non-English letters, and you'll still have problems
> (e.g.
> > when editing .desktop files, using Gtk2 file browser windows etc).
> >
> > If you think of it from a user's point of view, this whole story is
> simply
> > about "just works" vs. anything else. Obviously vast majority of the
> users
> > want applications and accented/CJK/etc letters to "just work".
>
> I'd second that, and I'm talking as an IT professional as well as a
> personal user. UTF-8 is maybe a PITA from a programmer (and sometimes
> even a user) point of view, but it sounds hard to avoid it nowadays,
> unless you don't care about many languages. Maybe we would have had the
> same discussion when color has appeared in terminals (even if I think
> that UTF-8 is a new dimension that brings more than color, sometimes)?

How many different languages do you actually use in your day to day work ?
There is no need to educate me on the positive effect of having UTF-8.
I understand pretty well that it is a very useful thing to have UTF-8 support, but IMO Egmont statement was a 
bit exaggarated. Something 
like ... "Wow, now we can read/write documents in other languages" or at least I got it that way.

Anyway, UTF-8 is important but it is obvious that it is not going to happen in October. It would become my 
priority once we have a release.

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