XnView Software

xnview wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2015 4:44 am

waily wrote: Mon Aug 31, 2015 2:37 amIs it possible to keep old descript.ion but internel use unicode for display and modify ?
Something like add a layer to transencoding ANSI to unicode in file io.
This way you can keep all internel XNViewMP deal with unicode and keep old descript.ion.

i don't understand, i can't change the encoding for description without breaking compatibility.

xnview wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2020 10:04 amBy default, descript.ion file created is ANSI (for compatibility). If you create an empty unicode descript.ion file, it will be used.

xnview wrote: Thu Oct 29, 2020 2:14 pm

xephu wrote: Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:15 am Browser - Metadata - Encoding - Comment is also set to UTF-8.

This setting is for embedded comment.
By default, if descript.ion doesn't exist, ansi is used. You can force UTF8 by editing

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useUtf8ForDescription=true

from xnview.ini

• XnView Forum
  • descript.ion display unicode incorrectly
  • Descrip.tion file format
  • Smaller problems with Edit Comment
  • 0.97.1-win10: description does not work for UTF files/directories
• XnView Bug Tracker
  • 0001399: Setting to create descript.ion in UTF8
• JP Software
  • 4DOS/4NT Technical Note: Using DESCRIPT.ION
• Optima SC
  • 4DOS/4NT Description file extensions proposal

helmut wrote: Tue Jul 26, 2022 7:49 pmThis setting sounds very promising. AFAIK, UTF-8 has partial ASCII compatibility, so I wonder why UTF-8 isn't activated by default and why this should break compatibility. The way it is now (UTF-8 disabled) is pretty useless for many Asian users.

xnview wrote: Mon Dec 28, 2020 1:11 pmBy default, text file must be in the system codec. I can only detect UTF8 text file with BOM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8#Byte_order_mark wrote:If the UTF-16 Unicode byte order mark (BOM, U+FEFF) character is at the start of a UTF-8 file, the first three bytes will be 0xEF, 0xBB, 0xBF.

The Unicode Standard neither requires nor recommends the use of the BOM for UTF-8, but warns that it may be encountered at the start of a file trans-coded from another encoding. While ASCII text encoded using UTF-8 is backward compatible with ASCII, this is not true when Unicode Standard recommendations are ignored and a BOM is added. A BOM can confuse software that isn't prepared for it but can otherwise accept UTF-8, e.g. programming languages that permit non-ASCII bytes in string literals but not at the start of the file. Nevertheless, there was and still is software that always inserts a BOM when writing UTF-8, and refuses to correctly interpret UTF-8 unless the first character is a BOM (or the file only contains ASCII).

helmut wrote: Tue Jul 26, 2022 7:49 pm The way it is now (UTF-8 disabled) is pretty useless for many Asian users.

xnview wrote: Wed Jul 27, 2022 7:33 am

helmut wrote: Tue Jul 26, 2022 7:49 pm The way it is now (UTF-8 disabled) is pretty useless for many Asian users.

it's to be compatible with old description file used by others apps

helmut wrote: Wed Jul 27, 2022 8:19 pm

xnview wrote: Wed Jul 27, 2022 7:33 am

helmut wrote: Tue Jul 26, 2022 7:49 pm The way it is now (UTF-8 disabled) is pretty useless for many Asian users.

it's to be compatible with old description file used by others apps

O.k.. But couldn't there be a smart logic in XnView that recognizes if the user uses non-ASCII characters in the description and then saves description in UTF-8? There could be a message telling that description saved in UTF-8 might not be readable by older or other software but I guess most users won't care because they don't use other software than XnView for reading description files.

Ddavid wrote: Wed Jul 27, 2022 10:59 pm You still can leave the option for the non-Unicode app users. If they turn off Unicode, note them "The description/filename/folder name/content in zip file contains Unicode characters, please edit again" every time they type any Unicode char.

useUtf8ForDescription=true

xnview wrote: Thu Jul 28, 2022 7:56 am

Ddavid wrote: Wed Jul 27, 2022 10:59 pm You still can leave the option for the non-Unicode app users. If they turn off Unicode, note them "The description/filename/folder name/content in zip file contains Unicode characters, please edit again" every time they type any Unicode char.

do you have tried

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useUtf8ForDescription=true

?

useUtf8ForDescription=true

xnview wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 11:05 am yes for compatibility

forceUtf8ForDescription=true