🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan9.024546.26934@fcom.cc.utah.edu> you write:
>[ First a clarification of something which is my fault because of my
>  background in comm software:  I have been informed that the currently
>  "blessed" correct terminlogy for what I have been calling "Runic
>  encoding" is "Process code", "File code", or "Interchange code".  I'll
>  try to call it "Interchange code" from now on (I feel the other terms
>  imply applications, some of which I disagree with). ]

I should have been more clear.  A "process code" is a fixed-width encoding
suitable for internal processing, e.g., ASCII, Unicode, 10646 UCS2, and
10646 UCS4, EUC wide char; a "file code" or "interchange code" is a
potentially variable length encoding suitable for file storage (non memory
mapped environments) or interchange, e.g., UTF1 and UTF2 (FSS-UTF),
Shift JIS, EUC Multibyte.

[My objection to your use of the word "rune" was (1) you weren't clear
about which of these encodings you were referring to, and (2) I hate
cute terminology which is opaque when perfectly transparent terminology
already exists.]

One should not in general use an interchange code (UTF1 or UTF2) for
processing.  While one may use a process code for interchange, some
communication channels may have difficulties with data transparency
(e.g., Unicode and 10646 UCS[24] allow NULL bytes and ISO2022 C0/C1 control
code bytes in any byte position of their "process codes").

I can't imagine why anyone in their right mind would want to use UTF[12]
or any other ostensibe interchange code for processing, given the problems
of variable length encodings.  However, that doesn't mean that unaware
applications can't effectively use an interchange code internally, e.g.,
8-bit clean applications which interpret only the ASCII (ISO646) characters
could use UTF2 (FSS-UTF) without difficulty.  But if one is to create
an aware application which uses more than the ASCII subset, or if it is
to memory map files, then use of a fixed-with process code (even for backing
store) becomes much more sensible.

Glenn Adams