🚀 go-pugleaf

[note Followup-To: comp.std.internat]

In article <1gt5a2EINNin3@uni-erlangen.de>, unrza3@cd4680fs.rrze.uni-erlangen.de (Markus Kuhn) writes:
> It should also be noted, that at least one existing OS (Windows NT)
> uses a 2 byte encoding both internally (e.g. in filenames in Fnodes
> on the disc) as well as in text files. Text files always begin with
                          ^^
> FEFF as a magic code for ISO 10646 textes. This code also indicates,
> whether it is a littleendian file.

Is this magic code visible to the user without any special tricks,
or is it filtered away by the operating system when the file is
opened for reading?  Suppose I obtain a file, that is labeled as
containing IS 10646 text, via FTP from a server running Windows NT,
to a client running a different system--will I then get this 0xFEFF
magic code (which is meaningless on my system) too, or will I get a
'clean' IS 10646 text?

I remember seeing text files containing an explicit ^Z (0x1A) at
the end, due to their origin on some home computer where ^Z was the
ordinary EOF marker, even though I was sitting on a system with
perfectly functional EOF pointers in the file descriptor blocks...

I hope the above isn't yet another version of that problem (non-
standard tags or markers floating around with standards-compliant
data on systems not understanding them)?

Alternatively, does this magic code have any chance of becoming
a standard itself?
--
Anders Andersson, Dept. of Computer Systems, Uppsala University
Paper Mail: Box 325, S-751 05 UPPSALA, Sweden
Phone: +46 18 183170   EMail: andersa@DoCS.UU.SE