Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Encoding handling proposal

[Tom Lord]

    > From: address@hidden (James Blackwell)

    > Marcus Sundman wrote:
    > > Here is my proposal of how *I* think a CM system should handle the
    > > "encoding issue" and some related issues. You may have a different
    > > opinion, and if you do it'd be nice to hear it, but no trolling,
    > > please.  (See the "Notes" section below for comments regarding each
    > > point.)

    > If you're worried about encoding formats, then stick with file formats 
    > that document the encoding used internally. For example, html, 
    > star office documents, most gnome documents, and even most microsoft
    > formats.

I have an idea.   

How about jblack shuts up when the topic switches to a subject in
which he is not qualified to comment?

My gosh... if he did that, and stuck to the topics he's really good
at, he'd be recognized as the expert he is instead of someone that
people need to beat back with a stick occaisionally when that expert
goes haywire.

That'd save the rest of us the effort of having to clean up messes
where he's said something that's 50% true and we have to try to
clarify which 50% is right and which 50% is BS.

    > If you're *really* stuck with documents that can't document internally,
    > then stick to each file a filename.type, in which the encoding method is
    > stored there, and rewrite all of the software that you want to use these
    > encoding info files to actually use them. 

    > Arch's job is to return the same bytes that it gets. It performs this
    > job admirably. :) 

It's heuristically useful to have some oversimplified views promoted
but there is a limit.

On topic:

Encoding issues in arch are hard.  It's roughly but significantly akin
to the problem of solving encoding issues for a global filesystem.   

The real solution is a couple 'o years out.   It's unlikely to be
worked out in casual g-a-u chatter, imo.

Meanwhile (*cough*james*cough*), most files in src/tla/libarch lack
good comments and some (e.g. cmdutils) look like what the
undergraduate barfed up from his bad lunch the other day.   It's a pig
slop and it shouldn't be.   _That_ is a solvable, useful problem to
think about.


-t