# A few good articles on Unicode **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [June 15, 2006, 6:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-few-good-articles-on-unicode/63502 "2006-06-15T18:16:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Charles\_O\_Nutter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Charles\_O\_Nutter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Charles_O_Nutter)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 6:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-few-good-articles-on-unicode/63502/1 "2006-06-15T18:16:34Z")
To add a little fuel to the discussion (and to help dispel some rumors, myths, and legends about Unicode) I present you with Tim B.'s 4-part trilogy of articles on Unicode, why it’s important, and why you should use it. The first article provides a nice overview, even mentioning some of the political and technical difficulties of CJK languages and Unicode (as well as the previously-mentioned gaiji). The second article discusses character strings in general. The third, perhaps most relevant to the Ruby Unicode discussion is an exploration of characters versus bytes, and how the various encodings work. The fourth article discusses Java’s use of UTF-16 internally, and why that may be a good or bad thing. At any rate, they’re entertaining to read and cleared up a number of my own questions about Unicode. Perhaps they will help the rest of us in the Ruby community to understand Unicode as well. Part 1: On the Goodness of Unicode - [http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/04/06/Unicode](http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/04/06/Unicode) Part 2: On Character Strings - [http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/04/13/Strings](http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/04/13/Strings) Part 3: Characters vs. Bytes - [http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/04/26/UTF](http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/04/26/UTF) Part 4: Programming Languages and Text - [http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/04/30/JavaStrings](http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/04/30/JavaStrings) And while not directly related, Tim also fiddled with a fully-unicode-supporting UTF-8 string class in Java with many of the typical C string operations (strcpy, strstr, …). Some of the logic he uses for his byte-vector-as-unicode-string might be applicable to Ruby as well: Yooster (Ustr): [http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/05/17/Yooster](http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/05/17/Yooster) ---
**Author:** ![Charles\_O\_Nutter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Charles\_O\_Nutter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Charles_O_Nutter)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 6:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-few-good-articles-on-unicode/63502/2 "2006-06-15T18:44:06Z")
On Jun 16, 2006, at 1:15 AM, Charles O Nutter wrote: > The fourth article discusses Java’s use of UTF-16 > internally, and why that may be a good or bad thing. Excellent! I’m particularly interested to learn more about pros/cons between using UTF-16 internally for all strings (Java) vs. being able to specify different encoding for each string object (Ruby 2.0). Thanks for sharing, Daesan Dae San H. removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![Charles\_O\_Nutter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Charles\_O\_Nutter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Charles_O_Nutter)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 9:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-few-good-articles-on-unicode/63502/3 "2006-06-15T21:53:38Z")
“Charles O Nutter” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) writes: > Part 4: Programming Languages and Text - > [ongoing by Tim Bray · Programming Languages and Text](http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/04/30/JavaStrings) > > And while not directly related, Tim also fiddled with a > fully-unicode-supporting UTF-8 string class in Java with many of the typical > C string operations (strcpy, strstr, …). Some of the logic he uses for his > byte-vector-as-unicode-string might be applicable to Ruby as well: > > Yooster (Ustr): [ongoing by Tim Bray · Yooster, v0.1](http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/05/17/Yooster) While were are at it, also see “The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!)” > **[The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must...](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2003/10/08/the-absolute-minimum-every-software-developer-absolutely-positively-must-know-about-unicode-and-character-sets-no-excuses/)** > > Ever wonder about that mysterious Content-Type tag? You know, the one you’re supposed to put in HTML and you never quite know what it should be? Did you ever get an email from your friends in… ---
**Author:** ![Charles\_O\_Nutter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Charles\_O\_Nutter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Charles_O_Nutter)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 3:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-few-good-articles-on-unicode/63502/4 "2006-06-16T15:12:45Z")
On Thursday 15 June 2006 3:50 pm, Christian N. wrote: > While were are at it, also see And it’s probably worth mentioning that O’Reilly has a 678 page book on Unicode coming to bookstores by the end of the month: [http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/unicode/index.html](http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/unicode/index.html) HTH, Keith