Dave Harman OBC wrote:
! > Agreed, the DNS and other systems should be upgraded to 8bit. ! > Unix should also allow / in file names, it can be escaped somehow. ! ! It is not possible.
Oh, every value can be escaped, there's no reason that the full 8bit range cannot be incorporated throughout every operating system. It's just legacy junk which keeps us putting up restrictions in everything that we really don't want. Ditto for network software.
It is not possible because all old programs will be broken. It is also not possible because non-ascii characters have different meanings in different languages. I mean, words ðÏÌÀÂÉÌÁ ÐÁÒÎÑ Ñ, ïËÁÚÁÌÓÑ ÂÅÚ ÈÕÑ. îÁ ÈÕÑ ÍÎÅ ÂÅÚ ÈÕÑ, ëÏÇÄÁ Ó ÈÕÅÍ ÄÏ ÈÕÑ? have meaning only to Russian speakers. A German or a Japanese would never be able to remember a hostname like ÄÉÒÅËÃÉÑ.ÍÁÛÚÁ×ÏÄ.ÓÁÒÁÔÏ×.ÒÏÓÓÉÑ, because in _their_ representation of these characters this text is a complete gibberish. - Igor.