RE: no encoding specified when creating XHTML documents

Dave J Woolley wrote:
> 	If the document is actually served as HTML, 8859/1
> 	is the default,

There is no default charset in HTML. From the HTML 4.01 spec [1]:

   'Therefore, user agents must not assume any default
    value for the "charset" parameter.'

You must have been thinking of the HTTP default charset.

> 	Amaya is an [X]HTML tool, it should default to 8859/1.

Bad idea, Amaya doesn't know if the document will be served by HTTP or
otherwise, so it cannot assume this default.  It should always add a
<meta... charset=> (as well as an XML encoding declaration if XHTML).

> 	Also, in HTML, lang is supposed to be orthogonal, to
> 	encoding, so it can, at best, be used as hint to the
> 	encoding for newly created documents.

Right.

--
François Yergeau