Re: gnus should accept UTF8 even if UTF-8 is standard

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:03:28 +0200 Reiner Steib <address@hidden> wrote: 

RS> On Wed, Oct 15 2008, Ted Zlatanov wrote:
>> Reiner Steib <address@hidden> wrote: 
>>>>>> (define-coding-system-alias 'utf8 'utf-8)
>>>>>> (define-coding-system-alias 'UTF8 'utf-8)
KH> I agree that defining those aliases causes no problem.

RS> BTW, is the uppercase variant useful?  AFAICS, it is the only
RS> uppercase variant...
RS> -*- mode: grep; default-directory: ".../emacs/lisp/international/" -*-
RS> Grep started at Wed Oct 15 23:58:55

RS> grep -nH -e define-coding-system-alias.*[A-Z] *.el
RS> mule-conf.el:1279:(define-coding-system-alias 'UTF8 'utf-8)

RS> Grep finished (matches found) at Wed Oct 15 23:58:55

It's a common usage, e.g. in locale names.  'UTF-8 is also common and
should be added.

RS> If it becomes a more frequent mistake, we might add (utf8 . utf-8) to
RS> the default value `mm-charset-synonym-alist'.  I hesitate to pollute
RS> `mm-charset-synonym-alist' by adding entries for each and every pilot
RS> error.
>> 
>> It's not a pilot error at this point, 

RS> How do you know?

Because we're talking about Emacs-wide coding system aliases, not the
specific pilot error jidanni is reporting, or the Evolution bug we
discussed back in May.  The goal is to give the user sensible
conveniences as long as we don't compromise the software, and I think
this is a good solution.  If you disagree this is reasonable, I'll defer
to you and the Emacs maintainers as I don't feel too strongly about it.

>> the mangled names have been in common usage for years...

RS> Not in the context of mail/news.  See the little statistics in the
RS> above mentioned thread.

Again, we're talking Emacs-wide now.  I agree that for mail and news
utf-8 is reasonable.

Ted