Re:Static typing will not save us from broken software
by Someone on Monday October 24, 2016 @02:03PM
(#12781183)
I would have written PETSCII, EBCDIC or shift-JIS instead, but feared few users would understand it.
Not everybody writes new stuff; some software has to interface with stuff written decades ago.
Also, even for software 100% written today it often is impossible to stay in a world where all strings use compatible encodings.
Examples where you need conversions: when connecting systems that support different Unicode versions or when generating http headers, windows file names, or QR codes. I guess many 'older' systems will not handle ZIP or tar files that use UTF-8 for file names in the archive, either.
Not everybody writes new stuff; some software has to interface with stuff written decades ago.
Also, even for software 100% written today it often is impossible to stay in a world where all strings use compatible encodings.
Examples where you need conversions: when connecting systems that support different Unicode versions or when generating http headers, windows file names, or QR codes. I guess many 'older' systems will not handle ZIP or tar files that use UTF-8 for file names in the archive, either.