OpenBSD removes support for non-UTF8 locales • Hacker News Board

Re: OpenBSD removes support for non-UTF8 locales

#11

Post by FroshKiller » Fri, Aug 14, 2015, 6:33 PM UTC

kragen wrote: post #3

I wonder what the pros and cons weighed in the discussion were. Clearly not supporting Unicode text in non-UTF-8 locales (except through, like, some kind of compatibility function, like recode or iconv) is the Right Thing. One problem that I have is that current UTF-8 implementations typically are not "8 bit clean", in the sense that GNU and modern Unix tools typically attempt to be; they crash, usually by throwing a…

It was sort of darkly funny to be reading along as you're quoting the guy then all of a sudden hit so matter-of-factly, "He's dead, but you can still get the thing from...." A real splash of cold water.

Re: OpenBSD removes support for non-UTF8 locales

#12

Post by TazeTSchnitzel » Fri, Aug 14, 2015, 6:37 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #6

How does locale work on the keyboard side, then? What determines whether text entry is right to left or left to right?

Input methods don't need to align with encoding.

Re: OpenBSD removes support for non-UTF8 locales

#13

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft » Fri, Aug 14, 2015, 6:39 PM UTC

fletchowns wrote: post #4

I dream of a world where everything is UTC, UTF-8, and metric.

Metric's nice, but each day being 10 hours in a 10 day week just doesn't work for me. But at least it's Fiveday, and I have a 20 hour weekened to look forward to.

Re: OpenBSD removes support for non-UTF8 locales

#14

Post by ohitsdom » Fri, Aug 14, 2015, 6:48 PM UTC

fletchowns wrote: post #4

I dream of a world where everything is UTC, UTF-8, and metric.

I'd strongly consider voting for a US presidential candidate solely on if moving to metric was a big part of their platform. So much time is wasted in school on the confusing mess that is the imperial system.

Re: OpenBSD removes support for non-UTF8 locales

#15

Post by toyg » Fri, Aug 14, 2015, 6:52 PM UTC

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #13

fletchowns wrote: post #4

I dream of a world where everything is UTC, UTF-8, and metric.

Metric's nice, but each day being 10 hours in a 10 day week just doesn't work for me. But at least it's Fiveday, and I have a 20 hour weekened to look forward to.

You should use the International Fixed Calendar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Fixed_Calendar

The failure to adopt the IFC is the proof that human beings will forever be shackled to their ancestral beliefs.

Re: OpenBSD removes support for non-UTF8 locales

#16

Post by peterfirefly » Fri, Aug 14, 2015, 6:55 PM UTC

fletchowns wrote: post #4

I dream of a world where everything is UTC, UTF-8, and metric.

IPA would be nice, too.

Re: OpenBSD removes support for non-UTF8 locales

#17

Post by RexRollman » Fri, Aug 14, 2015, 6:55 PM UTC

fletchowns wrote: post #4

I dream of a world where everything is UTC, UTF-8, and metric.

Personally, I wish everyone used the 24:00 clock. Maybe the military has messed me up, but I really prefer seeing something like 18:22 over 6:22pm. It just seems simplier.

Re: OpenBSD removes support for non-UTF8 locales

#18

Post by throwaway2048 » Fri, Aug 14, 2015, 7:02 PM UTC

kragen wrote: post #3

I wonder what the pros and cons weighed in the discussion were. Clearly not supporting Unicode text in non-UTF-8 locales (except through, like, some kind of compatibility function, like recode or iconv) is the Right Thing. One problem that I have is that current UTF-8 implementations typically are not "8 bit clean", in the sense that GNU and modern Unix tools typically attempt to be; they crash, usually by throwing a…

I'm willing to bet a large amount that non UTF-8 encoding were broken and nobody cared enough to bother fixing them.

OpenBSD does not hesitate to nuke legacy stuff that gets broken. Which i feel is ultimately for the best, because half-assed support that barely functions is worse than no support at all many times.

Re: OpenBSD removes support for non-UTF8 locales

#19

Post by adamrt » Fri, Aug 14, 2015, 7:04 PM UTC

ohitsdom wrote: post #14

fletchowns wrote: post #4

I dream of a world where everything is UTC, UTF-8, and metric.

I'd strongly consider voting for a US presidential candidate solely on if moving to metric was a big part of their platform. So much time is wasted in school on the confusing mess that is the imperial system.

The amount of time and money to shift at this point would be astronomical wouldn't it? It would take a few generations as we would continue to have to teach imperial so people could convert when they ran across any existing media referring to the imperial system measurements.

Hundred years of machines that use imperial, speedometers, odometers, books, tools, software, air conditioning, heating, manufacturing, construction, plumbing, including regulatory codes for each of those.

Not saying its impossible and it's definitely my knee jerk reaction, but at this point I cant imagine it being feasible.

Re: OpenBSD removes support for non-UTF8 locales

#20

Post by gnuvince » Fri, Aug 14, 2015, 7:05 PM UTC

As a French-speaking person, I cannot tell you how much the announcement[0] that after 5.8, basic utilities, including mg(1), will be UTF-8 ready pleases me. I'm a huge Emacs fan, but I like to use mg(1) for quick edits and this is very exciting news for me!

[0] http://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=20150722182236