Re: [apps-discuss] Feedback about "Update to MIME regarding Charset Parameter Handling in Textual Media Types"

[Julian Reschke <[e-mail]>]

On 2012-02-29 03:34, "Martin J. Dürst" wrote:
> On 2012/02/29 11:19, Ned Freed wrote:
>
>>> Another change I want to do is to add to:
>>
>>> "New subtypes of the "text" media type, thus, SHOULD NOT define a
>>> default "charset" value. If there is a strong reason to do so despite
>>> this advice, they SHOULD use the "UTF-8" [RFC3629] charset as the
>>> default."
>>
>>> a sentence that if it's not UTF-8, it MUST be an ASCII-compatible
>>> encoding.
>>
>> I think that's a very good addition to make.
>
> Do we really, in this day and age, expect a new type to define an ASCII
> compatible encoding that's not UTF-8 as a default?

I hope not. If we were 100% sure, the "SHOULD be UTF-8" would be a "MUST 
be UTF-8".

> If the MUST is some basic Mime requirement, then I don't see any reason
> to repeat it here. If it's not, then I don't see why it couldn't be
> UTF-16(LE|BE) or some such. In any case, I don't see why we need to be
> that specific, we are already outside a SHOULD NOT and then outside a
> SHOULD, and that isn't supposed to happen very often.

It could be considered a requirement to not break software too much that 
has been written with the previous ASCII default in mind. As such, I 
really believe that using something like UTF-16 without labeling it as 
such would be a bad bad idea.

Best regards, Julian