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Re: XML character sets: a proposal



> As you, and many other must also be aware, UNICODE doesn't solve the
> worlds problems either, just 95% of the more common ones ;-) We have
> to think of XML being used to deliver things like the classical
> buddhist texts, dead languages, etc.
> 
Even live languages.  I've got some of these documents, and I would hate to see XML 
disallow the character encodings I need to use.  Gavin's right, 
using UTF-8 as a default and / or suggested encoding and including it 
in a reference implementation is one thing.  Prohibiting the use of 
other character encodings is to restrictive.  Wether through MIME and 
/ or through FSI's, XML has to be extensible in this regard.  

> I think it would be quite hard to guarantee that all XML systems will
> be able to meaningfully interpret any arbitrary XML document
> anyway. 

Your not kidding. Even basic rendering in a browser can be quite 
difficult.



B. Todd Bauman
Graduate Student
University of Maryland, Baltimore County