Odd characters

[lightengine]

Can someone explain why some postings contain 'odd' characters? I have seen many postings on here that have €£ etc in the text but they are clearly not intended. It seems to happen where someone has tried to use ' or " or maybe brackets. Is this because aserty keyboards are used or is it particular to me reading it on my electronic device?

[petethemole]

I thought this was going to be about people at exhibitions!

[Pete 75C]

Relieved it's not about all of us in general...

[martin_wynne]

Can someone explain why some postings contain 'odd' characters? I have seen many postings on here that have €£ etc in the text but they are clearly not intended. It seems to happen where someone has tried to use ' or " or maybe brackets. Is this because aserty keyboards are used or is it particular to me reading it on my electronic device?

 

It is caused by a mismatch in the character encoding when text is copied and pasted from other programs, such as a word processor. Text on RMweb should be encoded in UTF-8 format.

 

If it makes reading difficult, you can probably cure it by changing the browser encoding -- change the setting at View > Character Encoding > menu items (Firefox).

 

UTF-8 matches the ASCII single-byte character set for the common characters up to $7F, but requires multi-byte characters for the special characters above $7F. It is also cleverly self-synchronising so that a mix of byte-count characters in a string can be detected without starting from the beginning. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8

 

Martin.

[Stevelewis]

Yes  I am disappointed  also  that  this is not  about certain characters  at  exhibitions.............I wa$  £0oking forward to a good  read

[HarryBill]

The "odd characters" my wife complains about are large men at exhibitions who stand with their hands on their hips so that she can't see or get past them. :-( Cheers, Harry

[Kenton]

 

The "odd characters" my wife complains about are large men at exhibitions who stand with their hands on their hips

Be thankful that is where they are. It could be far worse given the strange lot we are alleged to be by the press.

[Oldddudders]

 Be thankful that is where they are. It could be far worse given the strange lot we are alleged to be by the press.

A classic example of strange characters! No, not Kenton himself but the spurious stuff at the beginning. As you say, the popular press seems to have difficulty in differentiating exhibition-goers from exhibitionists.....

[Talltim]

Kenton often seems to attract odd characters ( in his posts)

[Kenton]

 

Kenton often seems to attract odd characters ( in his posts)

I blame it all on the Editor (a bit like the Murdock Press allegedly)

 

Every time I click "Reply" a

creeps in without me typing it.

 

Then when I edit to correct it gets worse as the '&' gets converted to a

 

irritating

[Guest]

You guys think you've got problems. This is a Nordic keybaord so I get three extra characters to play with - æ, ø, å. I just wish I knew what they meant...

[Mikkel]

Rødgrød med fløde

[Guest]

Rødgrød med fløde

 

 

(And just how do you pronounce Odense, anyway?)

[DonB]

Rødgrød med fløde

 

That's easy for you to say!

[Talltim]

 I blame it all on the Editor (a bit like the Murdock Press allegedly)

 

Every time I click "Reply" a

creeps in without me typing it.

 

Then when I edit to correct it gets worse as the '&' gets converted to a

 

irritating

 

Do you know what it is that causes it? Is the browser, or your security settings, or what?

[Oldddudders]

Do you know what it is that causes it? Is the browser, or your security settings, or what?

Could Java be involved here?

[Alister_G]

Could Java be involved here?

 

Now don't go dragging them into it, you'll be blaming Brazil next!

 

 

Al

[Kenton]

 

Do you know what it is that causes it? Is the browser, or your security settings, or what?

Definitely the editor on this site. I have no problems elsewhere. In a much older version of the IPB software long ago when it first was changed from the previous incarnation of RMWeb it worked fine - along with the Blogs.

 

Then IPB did one of those "improvement" upgrades and the Blogs fell apart and the editor corrupted every post.

 

I have Javascript (note javascript not Java) switched off as it is such a security black hole.

 

Andy is aware of the issue - of course - but has bigger issues to attend to (and of course IPB couldn't give a damn) it only seems to affect me and one or two others so it really doesn't matter - I can live with it and others can put up with it - apparently.

 

BTW the two editors on here handle things differently and the quick reply makes a bigger mess than the "replying to" editor - why there are two different editors remains a mystery - and another example of the poor programming style of IPB - two seperate blocks of code doing essentially the same function differently.

[AndyB]

  Definitely the editor on this site. 

 

 

Without wishing to sound funny, wouldn't that mean that a significant proportion/majority of us would be inserting these non breaking space (&nbsp) characters? 

A quick Google-ing suggests it is something to do with the browser used? 

Best, Andy

[Kenton]

 

Without wishing to sound funny, wouldn't that mean that a significant proportion/majority of us would be inserting these non breaking space (&nbsp) characters? 

A quick Google-ing suggests it is something to do with the browser used? 

Best, Andy

Then please explain why there is no problem with any other site. Why this happens with both IE and Firefox. Why this only started happening AFTER an "upgrade" of the IPB software. and ... Why the editor translates differently between the two versions.

 

I am sure many on here are aware that the code is standard html for a "non-break space" which is often inserted by word processing programs and html editors. These are usually displayed as a space by the browser if the code is sent correctly by the server. The code is sometimes stored raw in the database/file depending on the program used. Somewhere there is a mismatch in the translator/editor resulting in the code appearing in the text box. A similar thing happens with the

<br />

that is used to signify a line break (white space such as paragraphs) in the text. One of the big differences between the editors on here.

 

If I type separated lines into the quick editor all the white space is lost during posting unless I enter these break codes. They are effectively removed and replaced in the stored file by different codes to represent the html. In one editor they are replaced correctly in the other they are simply removed and all typed text is removed ending up with merged text. I then have to edit the post to make it appear correctly as typed (hence the editing of almost every post I make - not just for the spelling) The other editor handles it correctly and so editing the post corrects the 'translation' error.

 

I think this is a slightly different problem from the OP that concerned the translation of character sets.

[AndyB]

  Then please explain why there is no problem with any other site. Why this happens with both IE and Firefox. Why this only started happening AFTER an "upgrade" of the IPB software. and ... Why the editor translates differently between the two versions.

 

I think this is a slightly different problem from the OP that concerned the translation of character sets.

 

 

Agree with your last point, so wish to keep this reply short to avoid going off-topic and, in my case off-piste!

 

It does seem to me that IE is quite a commonly used browser, as is Firefox. As there are quite a few thousand members om the forum, that would suggest that maybe quite a lot of people are using IE on here too?. So, do they have the various &nbsp, br problems too?

I use Chrome, myself. 

Sorry, can't answer your further points as I only have limited expertise and only a few web pages and sites to my credit. 

Best, Andy 

[Kenton]

Andy, I do believe there are only a few afflicted and likely to be all those who restrict javascript.

 

The error, however is in the IPB software as it does not happen on other forums or indeed other forms.

 

I suspect that the IPB software uses javascript to do some of the translation before sending it back to the server (the only way that what I post can be corrupted? possibly) as none of the javascript code even reaches my browser no translation is performed (a view source shows it simply not there, where as if most view source on an RMWeb page they will see that it is full of it)

[truffy]

I have Javascript (note javascript not Java) switched off as it is such a security black hole.

Odd, I thought it was the other way 'round.

 

Have you tried disabling the editor? (flick switch top left)

 

BTW, JS code is not 'sent back to the server'. Javascript runs solely in the local browser. Java, on the other hand, does all sorts of scary stuff.

[Kenton]

 

Odd, I thought it was the other way 'round.

 

Have you tried disabling the editor? (flick switch top left)

 

BTW, JS code is not 'sent back to the server'. Javascript runs solely in the local browser. Java, on the other hand, does all sorts of scary stuff.

You think I'd let Java access!! No way! Agreed, far worse than Javascript - but let's not confuse things further.

 

Javascript processes on the client PC and then sends data back to the (or any) server.

 

There is no switch to flick (like so much of the "improvement" done in IPB it too is a javascript feature.

 

In fact it is a wonder anything works here as so many of the links that used to function have been buried in javascript. My favourite being the "Follow this topic" button. Remember I said they used to work then following an "upgrade" they ceased to work. No good reason for doing it, IPB just decided it would be a fancy trick to play.

[truffy]

Javascript processes on the client PC and then sends data back to the (or any) server.

Strictly speaking, I think that might be AJAX, and the XML does the server-side stuff (although IIRC JS links to it via the XMLHttpRequest functions...it's been a long time since I looked at that scary stuff)

 

There is no switch to flick (like so much of the "improvement" done in IPB it too is a javascript feature.

This is the switch that I was referring to: