Alex Shinn wrote:

> At Sat, 18 Sep 2004 09:31:02 -0700, Per Bothner wrote:
>
>>* Most file formats that mix text and binary i/o do *not* handle
>>general strings: often they only support whatever character encoding
>>the "creative" engineers are most familiar with.
>
> I think relatively few formats assume a single encoding.  Either they
> tend to treat strings agnostically as a sequence of bytes (leaving
> encoding interpretation up to the programmer),

Which means they only handle a single encoding.

> HTTP, MIME, and most internet standards ...

HTTP is net work protocol, not a file encoding.  MIME is primarily a
network protocol, though it also ends up being use for email storage.
Network people tend to be more aware of internationalization issues
- they have to be.

I suspect widely use file formats tend to handle internationalized text,
since at least somebody involved with specifyin them will have a basic
understanding og internationalization.  Home-grown file formats are I
suspect more likely to be single-format.

In any case this is a side issue, of course.
--
	--Per Bothner
xxxxxx@bothner.com   http://per.bothner.com/