Cult-like behaviour [was Re: Kindness]

[Chris Angelico]

On Mon, Jul 16, 2018 at 6:09 AM, Jim Lee <jlee54 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On 07/15/18 12:37, MRAB wrote:
>>
>> To me, Unicode and UTF-8 aren't things to be reserved for I18N. I use them
>> as a matter of course because I find it a lot easier to stick with just one
>> encoding, one that will work with _any_ text I have.
>
>
> Which is exactly the same rationale for using any other single encoding
> (including ASCII).  If the text you deal with is not multi-lingual, why
> complicate matters by trying to support a plethora of encodings which will
> never be used (and the attendant opportunity for more bugs)?
>
> Note that I'm *not* saying Unicode  is *bad*, just that it's an unnecessary
> complication for a great deal of programming tasks.  For a great deal more,
> it's absolutely necessary.  That why I said a "smart" language would make it
> easy to turn on and off.
>

If you're going to use just one encoding, use UTF-8. That way, you
support all the world's languages, but you still don't have to worry
about "a plethora of encodings".

On Mon, Jul 16, 2018 at 6:20 AM, Jim Lee <jlee54 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have absolutely zero interest in Twitch - I don't even know what it is.
>
> This should drive home my point that, for many tasks, I18N or, more specifically, Unicode is an unnecessary complication.
>
> If my program doesn't give a whit about web protocols or emoji, then how some Twitch title displays itself is irrelevant.

It doesn't matter what Twitch is, except for the fact that it is a
platform for HUMANS to communicate with HUMANS. Ultimately, that is
what matters. Pick any other web site or communication protocol you
please.

ChrisA