Theodore H. Smith wrote:
I take your point that you are well aware of this. However some of your users are not so aware, having read your information on "Modified UTF-8" and thinking "hey, well is Sun do it, then it must be OK for me to do it too!"
Fair enough, it would be more helpful if you said that initially.
This thread, was inspired by exactly that. Someone point me to this page, using it as "proof" that modified UTF-8 is an acceptable thing to do.
While you are well aware, the users aren't. I think it would be a good idea to add a small note saying that this feature is going to be changed in future versions of Java, or perhaps Deprecated, due to its incompatibility. Just a small note, on that page and similar pages, with the phrase "This will be deprecated in the future because it currently contradicts the standard behaviour"... that would make a *huge* difference.
Fine. Java has a way of submitting requests, FYI:
http://bugs.sun.com/services/bugreport/index.jsp
I will relay your request to the Java team, but it will get more attention if you submit a request. It will get even more attention if people vote for that request to be implemented.
That aside.
I'm just curious about the \0 thing. What problems would having a \0 in UTF-8 present, that are not presented by having \0 in ASCII? I can't see any advantage there.
Beats me, I wasn't there. None of the Java folks I know were there either.
The only advantage I can imagine, would be using UTF-8 for storing \0 in places that previously weren't possible. To me, that sounds like a strange way to add a feature.
Maybe that's it. Maybe there was some old platform compatibility issue someone somewhere was thinking of.
On 12 Nov 2004, at 23:58, A. Vine wrote:
FYI, we are well aware of this shortcoming (modified UTF-8), and with each release try to mitigate it even further. The problem is that it is so deep in the code (note that it is since Java 1.0) that it is not easy to eliminate without breaking a lot of existing stuff, something that the Java team strive to avoid.
Theodore H. Smith wrote:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/io/ DataInput.html#modified-utf-8
If only people could sue for suggesting bad coding practices ;o)
--
Theodore H. Smith - Software Developer.
http://www.elfdata.com
