Re: German_Umlauts

On Sat, 30 Jun 2001, Martin Duerst wrote:

> At 06:51 01/06/28 -0400, Rainer Ziener wrote:
> >I am very interested to make all pages in correct HTML. Therefore I
> >use your validator.
> >My question concerns German Umlauts and other specicial characters.
> >For the normal ampersand the validator gives an error and I have to
> >write
> >& or &.
> 
> You have to do that because otherwise it's difficult to
> distinguish a 'real' ampersand from an ampersand that
> starts something like & or &.

nicely self-referential, but not the clearest discussion of escape
codes I've ever seen... isn't it just mandatory on this list to cite
the relevant part of the validator FAQ?

& is the better choice, since it conveys meaning between different
character sets using different values for characters. (Having to write
£ for the UK pound sterling symbol in the absence of a meaningful
representation leads to confusion in character sets where char 163 is
something else.)
 
> >But if I write German Umlauts or so, the I donエt get
> >any error from the validator.

(smart quotes?)

> Why should you? An umlaut is not a special character.

Is your name really Duerst, or does the ue, as is common in
german, represent u with an umlaut?

In HTML I'd expect to see Dürst. I have a Turkish colleague whose
surname is Örs. You get the idea.

I don't think there's a symbol corresponding to the umlaut mark by
itself in most character sets (don't ask me about unicode).

tschuess,

L.

<L.Wood@surrey.ac.uk>PGP<http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/>

Received on Saturday, 30 June 2001 12:09:00 UTC