[Mediawiki-l] MySQL character set problem

[Lars Aronsson]

Plamen Gradinarov wrote:

> MySQL 4.1.10a with default-character-set=cp1251 in my.cnf No errors
> while importing bg.wikipedia. Opening any imported page returns
> database error, but new added entries appear correctly, and all
> messages + navigation are in Bulgarian:
> http://encyclopedia.novdom.org
> 
> Comment the default-character-set=cp1251 in my.cnf and all imported
> data pop up.
> 
> Any suggestions how to launch the bg wikimedia import with cp1251
> preserved in my.cnf.

I'm curious: If you start a new installation today with a fresh MySQL 
version and everything, why would you not want to go with Unicode?

I've been using the 8bit code iso-8859-1 since 1989 (I almost wrote
"since 1898") and am now starting the process of converting my
projects to Unicode and utf-8.  So I'm interested in how people think
about these things.  Which valid arguments are there against utf-8?


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se