double byte character set, single byte character set, Latin alphabet

[Ned Bedinger]

jan.arnopolin at thomson.com wrote:
> I've got a problem to bring to the group.
> 
> We are allowing software users to specify a URL which is turned into a
> hyperlink on a compiled public-facing website.  The field in which they
> specify the URL does NOT allow Chinese, Korean, Japanese characters -
> i.e. DBCS.



My grasp of the problem you're dealing with is pretty weak, but I do 
know that Unicode fonts (which can contain about 65,000 glyphs) are 
encoded as DBCS.  So if the problem is that your application can't 
process DBCS, then the error message can't simply ask the user to use a 
Latin character set, because many users will find DBCS Latin characters 
in their Unicode fonts.

I think that if your application can't process DBCS in general, then 
what you'd need is an error message that suggests using an single byte 
(8-bit) font. I'd guess that some 8-bit Latin character fonts are 
provided with every operating system, so all you'd need to do is find 
out what OS your users have, and suggest a font that is pre-installed.

You might lose a few users who didn't install the default fonts with 
their OS, but that's probably not really your problem.

HTH,

Ned Bedinger
doc at edwordsmith.com