Re: [xml-dev] RE: Formatless files

["C. M. Sperberg-McQueen" <cmsmcq@blackmesatech.com>]

Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org> writes:

> [Roger: At file creation time an XML author must specify what the
> character encoding (charset) is. Once that is done the XML document is
> locked into that charset. Having locked into that kind of charset,
> then later it becomes impossible to put data with another kind of
> charset in that file. For example, if the file is created using the
> UTF-8 charset, then later you cannot insert data in the EBCDIC
> charset.]

What earthly advantage will anyone gain by mixing UTF-8 and EBCDIC
encoding of characters in a single file?!  A programmer would have to
have taken leave of their senses to want to do anything of the kind.

If there were any xml-dev readers with a basic understanding of
character-encoding issues but no personal experience of Unix, this idea
would suffice to put them off of Unix for life.  

-- 
C. M. Sperberg-McQueen
Black Mesa Technologies LLC
http://blackmesatech.com