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[% WRAPPER 'html-body.tt'
title = 'Notes on Unicode'
description = 'Notes on Unicode - Why is Unicode relevant?'
uuid = '18f81132-3a23-474c-9b64-ff066752cc21'
norder = '7000'
%]
<p>
So why would you like to use the Unicode? Since this may not be obvious
here is a short list of arguments to consider. Please note that the Unicode versions
are only available for Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista, though they may run fine
on Windows 9x/ME with the unicode layer installed - <em>we do not support this, however</em>!
</p>
<ul>
<li style="clear:both;"><b>The Unicode version runs faster</b>. Due to the fact that Windows, starting with NT,
supports Unicode natively, the ANSI system functions are only wrappers around the
actual Unicode functions. Whenever text (e.g. file names) is passed into one of the
ANSI functions, it will be converted to Unicode first and disposed after the call.
This is why the Unicode version runs faster on the NT platform.
</li>
<li style="clear:both;"><b>Unicode allows you to represent all kind of characters</b> (letters) without ever
changing the code page. Whereas on Windows 9x/ME you had to configure your system
to show a certain language, newer systems will be able to use a wealth of
languages without ever being reconfigured. Of course you want to have a demonstration,
right? So here it is:
<ol>
<li style="clear:both;"><em>Without</em> Unicode:<br />
<div class="cent" style="float:left; border:1px solid green; margin:0.2em; width:325px;">
<a href="/images/unicode/ANSI_WDS_DEU.png">
<img src="/images/unicode/ANSI_WDS_DEU_small.png" width="232" height="124" alt="ANSI version on a German system"/>
</a>
<div class="cent miniari" style="color:gray;">ANSI on a German system (click for full view)</div>
</div>
As you can see only certain characters are shown directly. Some are even
replaced by question marks. This raises an additional problem: whenever
a question mark is encountered the usual file-handling application would
consider this as a wildcard ("placeholder"). Hence such filenames cannot
be handled properly in ANSI versions.<br />Also some of the characters
are replaced by those which are locally available. Note the slight difference
between β (Greek letter beta) and ß (German ligature sz).<br />
However, on the NT platform it may happen you stumble over a system with
Chinese, Hebrew, German and Russian text at once. In this case the ANSI
version will make you more problems than it would solve. You will not be
able to perform certain actions on a file or directory just because the
filename is not understood by the system.
</li>
<li style="clear:both;"><em>With</em> Unicode:<br />
<div class="cent" style="float:left; border:1px solid green; margin:0.2em; width:325px;">
<a href="/images/unicode/Unicode_WDS.png">
<img src="/images/unicode/Unicode_WDS_small.png" width="323" height="124" alt="Unicode version on a German system"/>
</a>
<div class="cent miniari" style="color:gray;">Unicode on a German system (click for full view)</div>
</div>
Here you can see several characters as they would appear on a system in the
respective country. Note however, that Georgian shows only as squares. This
happens if the font you use does not have the graphical representation for
the characters. Though this may be a cosmetic problem, it is not a problem
when it comes to file operations, since the filename is fully correct, even
if it is being transferred. This is the major advantage of the Unicode version.
</li>
</ol>
<div style="clear:both;">
And yes, this also means that as a Pole or Russian you can have the interface
of WinDirStat in your preferred language even though you work on a Western Windows
(which likely does not support all needed characters in the ANSI version).
</div>
</li>
</ul>
[% END %]
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