Unicode is not "everywhere"...

[Dar Scott Consulting]

If the result of shell() is run through textDecode, should then shell() return binary data? This puts it outside the scope of "everywhere". I like the idea, as long as simple ASCII characters work transparently. 

Currently, "is strictly" says it is a string, not a binary string.

As far as the question, perhaps a rhetorical question, there are some binary streams that are not UTF-16 or UTF-8. 

> On Aug 22, 2019, at 1:24 PM, Richard Gaskin via use-livecode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
> 
> Dar Scott wrote:
> 
> > Concerning 22335...
> >
> > 1. I wonder if anyone uses shell() to return binary values.
> 
> In the modern Unicode world, what is "text" and what is "binary"?
> 
> I believe MacOS' HFS+ and Win's NFS use UTF-16 natively, Linux  EXT4 uses UTF-8.
> 
> It might seem simple to have a habit of running file names through textDecode, but since fopen uses ANSI I'm not sure what the implications are.
> 
> -- 
> Richard Gaskin
> Fourth World Systems
> Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
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> Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com
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