GNU bug report logs - #31185
Why is there no full support for Unicode?

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From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Keepun <keepun <at> gmail.com>, 31185 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#31185: [bug-diffutils] bug#31185: Why is there no full support for Unicode?
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2018 00:37:18 -0700

Keepun wrote:
> Files with encoding greater than 8 bits without BOM at the beginning can be 
> immediately identified as binary.

No, the BOM is not required or recommended in UTF-8, so it would be a mistake to 
identify GNU/Linux text files as binary merely because they lack a BOM. 
Typically these files do not have a BOM, and when they do one of the first 
things many users do is remove the BOM because it can cause trouble in practice.

Diffutils does not support UTF-16, where a BOM would make more sense, and there 
are no plans to add support for UTF-16 (or for UTF-32, for that matter).

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