Problems Arising From The Use of Code Pages
Microsoft strongly recommends using Unicode in modern applications, but many applications or data files still depend on the legacy code pages. This can cause many problems:
- Programs need to know what code page to use in order to display the contents of files correctly. If a program uses the wrong code page it may show text as mojibake.
- The code page in use may differ between machines, so files created on one machine may be unreadable on another.
- Data is often improperly tagged with the code page, or not tagged at all, making determination of the correct code page to read the data difficult.
- These Microsoft code pages differ to various degrees from some of the standards and other vendors' implementations. This isn't a Microsoft issue per se, as it happens to all vendors, but the lack of consistency makes interoperability with other systems unreliable in some cases.
- The use of code pages limits the set of characters that may be used.
- Characters expressed in an unsupported code page may be converted to question marks (?) or other replacement characters, or to a simpler version (such as removing accents from a letter). In either case, the original character may be lost.
Read more about this topic: Windows Code Pages
Famous quotes containing the words problems, arising, code and/or pages:
“In many ways, life becomes simpler [for young adults]. . . . We are expected to solve only a finite number of problems within a limited range of possible solutions. . . . It’s a mental vacation compared with figuring out who we are, what we believe, what we’re going to do with our talents, how we’re going to solve the social problems of the globe . . .and what the perfect way to raise our children will be.”
—Roger Gould (20th century)
“My arising prodigal
Sun the father his quiver full of the infants of pure fire ...”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“Acknowledge your will and speak to us all, “This alone is what I will to be!” Hang your own penal code up above you: we want to be its enforcers!”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“There is a difference between a book of two hundred pages from the very beginning, and a book of two hundred pages which is the result of an original eight hundred pages. The six hundred are there. Only you don’t see them.”
—Elie Wiesel (b. 1928)