capoccia's Journal: Update to “Slashdot Needs Unicode Support”

Update to "Slashdot needs Unicode support"

Now it is possible to use some limited set of special characters by entering that character (it won't work to use its HTML entity).

• opening single quote: '
• closing single quote: '
• opening double quote: "
• closing double quote: "
• en dash: -
• em dash: --
• ellipsis: ...

Also, to avoid further embarassment, Slashdot has blocked validation of its site. This is especially important since the wrong HTML entities are substituted for the characters you enter.

There are many online articles that detail the correct HTML entities to use for Unicode characters. One is on my website: "Basic HTML Typography."

But I thought...

[MonTemplar]

...it was Em Emalb, not Em Dash. :)

`?'..." Bleh

[SiliconJesus]

Aren?t you glad apostrophe?s work for all of us?

Honestly - what are the pretty quotes giving you that ` and ' are not capable of? Yeah - I'm one of those damned Unix users, but please - give it a rest. Its a geek site, not a HTML formatting site.

I understand and see your point, but I'd rather they fix the bugs in /. rather than worry about how your quotes and ellipses look. Just my $0.02.

Re:`?'..." Bleh

[capoccia]

it's more than just quote marks. try using the pound sterling sign (&# 163;) or even yen (&# 165;).

ok, you want geeky? try infinity (&# 8734;), integration (&# 8747;), partial differentials (&# 8706;).

if you're going to be using grave accents (`) instead of openning quotes, you should use acute accents (&# 180;) instead of closing quotes.

this is html, not an ascii terminal screen. it's been extremely crippled for the sole purpose of preventing abuse and evasion of the filtering

Re:`?'..." Bleh

[SiliconJesus]

Yes, but remember those who are the 'target audience' of slashdot don't care. I can't see ANY of those on my Solaris or Linux Workstation.

Re:`?'..." Bleh

[capoccia]

>I can't see ANY of those on my Solaris or Linux Workstation.

can you see these characters [206.47.37.30] correctly?

i think the problem is that slashdot is using the wrong html entities. can you see the characters on the ottawa pc users' group site, but not those on slashdot?

if both are unreadable, what browser are you using?

Re:`?'..." Bleh

[SiliconJesus]

I can see it on Windows / IE, Windows / FireFox, Linux / Firefox. I cannot see them in Linux / Netscape, Windows / Netscape, Solaris / Netscape, Solaris / Java Browser (the shitty one built into Solaris).

Re:`?'..." Bleh

[capoccia]

There is a simple answer when your browser can't interpret standards-compliant HTML--use a different browser. Even lynx can interpret my journal entry without substituting question marks. You know you have an awful browser when lynx does a better job than your whiz-bang graphical browser.