RE: New FAQ for review: Setting charset information in .htaccess

Hi Richard,

A few responses below. Extraneous text removed.

Addison

Addison P. Phillips
Director, Globalization Architecture
webMethods | Delivering Global Business Visibility
http://www.webMethods.com
Chair, W3C Internationalization (I18N) Working Group
Chair, W3C-I18N-WG, Web Services Task Force
http://www.w3.org/International

Internationalization is an architecture. 
It is not a feature.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: www-international-request@w3.org
> [mailto:www-international-request@w3.org]On Behalf Of Richard Ishida
> Sent: 2004年6月17日 15:53
> To: aphillips@webmethods.com; www-international@w3.org
> Subject: RE: New FAQ for review: Setting charset information in
> .htaccess
> 
> > 
> > 1. Maybe the question should read: "How do I configure my 
> > Apache server to serve files with a specific character 
> > encoding ("charset")?"
> 
> Actually the question intentionally specific because I am often 
> asked exactly that.  Your suggestion is a good topic for another 
> FAQ, but would require a much broader answer.

Not that much broader. .htaccess files use the same syntax as the server configuration files, IIRC. Covering how to set up your .htaccess should include deciding whether it is necessary and might include "what do I do if I want the whole enchillada" (you can slough off that problem and not expand the question by explicitly saying that users should refer to the Apache documentation if they need to configure their server)
> 
> > 
> > 2. I would always quote "charset" when used in the text to 
> > make clear that it is a synonym for character encoding.
> 
> Perhaps I should make the link earlier.

I like using the quotes in particular because it reinforces the fact that charset isn't character set, it's encoding.
> 
> 
> > 
> > 6. Section "by the way": You say that you may not want to 
> > serve the encoding information sometimes, but you don't spell 
> > out how to turn it off.
> 
> Yes, I was thinking of adding just such a section, but to be 
> honest I wasn't sure enough of how you do do that.  RemoveType in 
> Apache 1.x just reinstates the default, from what I can tell.  I 
> can't see a way to actually remove the encoding information.  In 
> Apache 2.x there is the RemoveCharset directive that seems to do 
> the job, but I didn't have a way to test its behaviour properly.  
> If anyone can give clear advice on this I'd appreciate it.

It's not fair to tell people that they may not want to do something but not tell them how not to do it..... ;-)

> 
> 
> > 
> > 7. You might want to mention the "choosing an encoding" 
> > tutorial more prominently (in the body)??
> 
> Choosing or declaring?

Choosing. Here you tell folks how to get the server to send the file in a specific encoding. The natural (newbie) question is: which encoding should I be sending, anyway? One question that occured to me was: does the FAQ spell out the differences in telling Apache "ISO8859-x" and "windows-125x", which I assume is covered in the choosing FAQ. No need to repeat information like that.
> 
> 
> > 
> > Addison
> > 
> > 
> > Addison P. Phillips
> > Director, Globalization Architecture
> > webMethods | Delivering Global Business Visibility 
> > http://www.webMethods.com Chair, W3C Internationalization 
> > (I18N) Working Group Chair, W3C-I18N-WG, Web Services Task 
> > Force http://www.w3.org/International
> > 
> > Internationalization is an architecture. 
> > It is not a feature.
> > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: www-international-request@w3.org 
> > > [mailto:www-international-request@w3.org]On Behalf Of Richard Ishida
> > > Sent: 2004?6?17? 13:17
> > > To: www-international@w3.org
> > > Subject: New FAQ for review: Setting charset information in 
> > .htaccess
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Here is a first draft of a new FAQ, answering the question:
> > > 
> > > > How do I use .htaccess directives on an Apache server to serve
> > > files with a specific encoding?
> > > http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-htaccess-charset.html
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Please send comments to help me produce a final draft.  Thanks.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > RI
> > > 
> > > 
> > > PS: Please note the very restricted focus of the question.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > ============
> > > Richard Ishida
> > > W3C
> > > 
> > > contact info:
> > > http://www.w3.org/People/Ishida/
> > > 
> > > W3C Internationalization:
> > > http://www.w3.org/International/
> > >  
> > > 
> > 
>

Received on Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:14:24 UTC