LL-L "Technical" 2003.02.05 (07) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

======================================================================
 L O W L A N D S - L * 05.FEB.2003 (07) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
 http://www.lowlands-l.net * admin at lowlands-l.net * Encoding: Unicode UTF-8
 Rules & Guidelines: http://www.lowlands-l.net/rules.htm
 Posting Address: lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org
 Server Manual: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html
 Archive: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html
=======================================================================
 You have received this because you have been subscribed upon request.
 To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l" as message
 text from the same account to <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org> or
 sign off at <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
=======================================================================
 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
 L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
 S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
=======================================================================

From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Technical"

> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Technical

> I'm cc'ing our hosts at LINGUIST on this.  Perhaps they can enlighten us.

I don't think we need enlightening - the reason for the problem can be
plainly seen in the HTML source of the archive pages, where they've
specified a list of ordinary fonts instead of unicode. I think they just
need to specify a couple of unicode fonts before the ones they've already
got.

> > This is an old problem with me, but when you sent that Arabic greeting
> with the
> > graphics everything was perfect, including the graphics and the Arabic
> text
>
> Interesting, since I did not get them and they are not displayed in the
> archives ...

Perhaps the reason is simply that Outlook is very good at HTML. It would be
nice if we could just use HTML all the time but obviously this would give a
lot of people problems. I certainly wouldn't want to try to get everyone
using Outlook... or even Windows!

> Mysteries abound ...

I discussed encoding and character problems with my web hosting people
today. It seems that SMTP is only meant to work with seven-bit characters
and all those encodings are ways of representing wider characters in a
seven-bit encoding. Thus, if you don't encode, SMTP should filter out all
but a very basic set of ASCII characters.

However, it seems that some SMTP implementations were written by people who
were too clever for their shirt, and they made them allow eight-bit
characters, thinking this was the way forward. As a result, unencoded eight
bit character sets can wing their way around the Internet unscathed until
they fly into a truly standard SMTP implementation and get their wings
clipped.

Sandy
http://scotstext.org/

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <admin at lowlands-l.net>
Subject: Technical

Thanks, Sandy.

I'm cc'ing the folks at LINGUIST anyway, if for nothing else then to suggest
that it would be wise to specify a true Unicode font in first place.  I
recommend Ariel Unicode, because it is the one with the greatest number of
symbols and because it is relatively easily obtained.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

==================================END===================================
* Please submit postings to <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>.
* Postings will be displayed unedited in digest form.
* Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
* Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l") are
  to be sent to <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org> or at
  <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
 =======================================================================