Re: [NTLK] [ANN] OPML support for IC/VC

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On Aug 23, 2006, at 4:48 PM, Frank Gruendel wrote:

>> Is 512 bytes 512 characters?
>
> Nope. The Newton's using the Unicode format, which is 2 bytes per
> character.

Just to be pedantic, that's not always strictly true. "Unicode"
basically just defines a set of glyphs and assigns them IDs. It's
how you encode those IDs that defines the byte length per glyph.

UTF-16, if I recall, is always 2 bytes per glyph, and I _think_
that's what the Newton uses.

UTF-8, on the other hand, can have glyphs anywhere from 1 to 3 bytes
long, even in the same string. (Ever seen three weird symbols on a
web page where there should have been a single apostrophe? That's
UTF-8 being misinterpreted as some other encoding!)

There is a fantastic article about all the history and madness of
string encoding here, for anyone who wants to learn more about this:

   <http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html>

Computers: 60 years later and we still can't even get text figured
out. :)

Steven
http://panic.com/
http://stevenf.com/

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