BOM in UTF-8

Hello www-validator,

I noticed this tip in validator results for XHTML:

   The Unicode Byte-Order Mark (BOM) in UTF-8 encoded files is known to
   cause problems for some text editors and older browsers. You may want
   to consider avoiding its use until it is better supported.

I think this is outdated and over cautious; the XML specification
clearly allows a BOM in UTF-8 content[1] and many editors use it to
distinguish Unicode from legacy encodings. If anything it should be
encouraged rather then discouraged.

I suggest either rewording this tip, or removing it.

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml-20040204/#sec-guessing

-- 
 Chris Lilley                    mailto:chris@w3.org
 Chair, W3C SVG Working Group
 W3C Graphics Activity Lead

Received on Wednesday, 22 June 2005 15:00:04 UTC