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Tag Archive for unicode

How does it matter if a character is 8 bit or 16 bit or 32 bit

Well, I am reading Programing Windows with MFC, and I came across Unicode and ASCII code characters. I understood the point of using Unicode over ASCII, but what I do not get is how and why is it important to use 8bit/16bit/32bit character? What good does it do to the system? How does the processing of the operating system differ for different bits of character.

Unicode license

The Unicode Terms of Use state that any software that uses their data files (or a modification of them) should carry the Unicode license references. It seems to me that most Unicode libraries have functions to check whether a character is a digit, a letter, a symbol, etc., and so will contain a modification of the Unicode Data Files (usually in the form of tables). Does that mean the license applies and all applications that use such Unicode libraries should carry the license?

A Unicode sentinel value I can use?

I am desiging a file format and I want to do it right. Since it is a binary format, the very first byte (or bytes) of the file should not form valid textual characters (just like in the PNG file header1). This allows tools that do not recognize the format to still see that its not a text file by looking at the first few bytes.

When should I *not* use Unicode? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here: Should character encodings besides UTF-8 (and maybe UTF-16/UTF-32) be deprecated? (8 answers) Closed 10 years ago. Unicode seems that its becoming more and more ubiquitous these days if it’s not already, but I have to wonder if there are any domains were Unicode isn’t the best implementation choice. Are […]

When should I *not* use Unicode? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here: Should character encodings besides UTF-8 (and maybe UTF-16/UTF-32) be deprecated? (8 answers) Closed 10 years ago. Unicode seems that its becoming more and more ubiquitous these days if it’s not already, but I have to wonder if there are any domains were Unicode isn’t the best implementation choice. Are […]