I'm surveying to see if special characters will display for most people on SciForums. This is something I'd like to know when posting content from different languages that don't use the plain Roman alphabet.

Below are items that contain certain special characters. First, it will appear in text. Then there will be an embedded picture showing all the characters properly displayed. Font, size, and other variables don't matter here. Tell me which ones display properly. If some of them don't, please explain the specific display problems, like if there are only squares, or whatever.

Because of the limit on the number of pictures I'm allowed in my post, I'll put two in this post, and the other two in the following one.

---

Item one:

Hwæt! We Gār-Dena in geār-dagum,
þēod-cyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hū ðā æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scēfing sceaðena þrēatum,
monegum mǣgðum meodo-setla oftēah.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/Athelwulf/Beowulf.png

Item two:

僕は英語とドイツ語話します。

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/Athelwulf/Bokuwa.png

Item three:

Nǚ rén bú shì dà má.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/Athelwulf/Nvren.png

Item four:

aɪ keɪm əz aɪs aɪ keɪm əz ə hoɹ
aɪ keɪm əz ədˈvaɪs ðət keɪm tu ʃoɹt
aɪ keɪm əz ɡoɫd aɪ keɪm əz kɹæp
aɪ keɪm klin ənd aɪ keɪm əz ə ɹæt

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/Athelwulf/ICame.png

111

Yes

Goodie.

No.

Be more specific.

Item two is just a series of question marks, below that is just an image place holder.

You mean there's no image for item two? Try a direct link: http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/Athelwulf/Bokuwa.png

Here's another example. Since this text reads right to left, but I can't make it appear properly aligned, this aspect won't count.

Item five:

جورج ووكر بوش أو جورج و. بوش (بالإنجليزية: George Walker Bush)
هو الرئيس الحالي والثالث والأربعون للولايات المتّحدة الأمريكيّة.
كان حاكما لولاية تكساس قبل توليه رئاسة الدولة. ولد في 6 تموز، 1946
وتسلّم الحكم في 20 كانون الثاني 2001 بعد إنتخابات متقاربة النتائج مع آل غور.
في عام 2004 أعيد انتخابة للمرة الثانية لمدّة أربع سنوات، تنتهي فترة حكمه في
20 كانون الثاني 2009.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/Athelwulf/Arabic.png

إنتخابات متقاربة الن (http://www.sciforums.com/encyclopedia/Athelwulf)

إنتخابات متقاربة الن (http://www.sciforums.com/encyclopedia/Athelwulf)

Where'd that bit of Arabic come from?

It shows for me.

You will find that these language sets will show or not mostly depending on the computer OS being used to view the thread. Support for different text encoding schemes is mostly OS dependant; the classic popular encoding being ASCII, a limited method that was designed to handle English, and did so quite well.

However, other languages exist, as well as other non-language characters not a part of the ASCII encoding. Today there are different variations of the UTF standard, most of which are supported by cyrrent Linux versions, Windows XP, and OS X, the three most common Operating Systems.

The most common ecoding method today is UTF-8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8

They all display correctly for me. However, I have trouble posting the full character set on OS/X using Safari. I just downloaded Firefox, let's see if it does any better:

Hwæt! We Gār-Dena in geār-dagum,

僕は英語とドイツ語話します。

جورج ووكر بوش أو جورج و. بوش (بالإنجليزي

Hmmm. They display okay. But the only way I can get them is to copy from someone else's post. The "insert special character" command in Safari is missing in Firefox.

They all display correctly for me. However, I have trouble posting the full character set on OS/X using Safari.

That's odd that it doesn't work.

I didn't know you used OS X.

Hmmm. They display okay. But the only way I can get them is to copy from someone else's post. The "insert special character" command in Safari is missing in Firefox.

Finding a way to insert special characters is always a pain for me. I have keyboard layouts for different languages in the language toolbar on my taskbar (I use XP). English US is the default. I use either English International or "Spanish (Traditional Sort)" to type letters with diacritics and other characters used in English, Spanish, and French. I use German or English International for ess-zet. And finally, I have the keyboards for Chinese, Japanese, and Russian. I know for a fact that OS X has this same capability; last summer when I was in an Apple store in Portland, I added the Chinese keyboard on a Mac so I could look something up on the Chinese Wikipedia. Have you tried this, and does it work?

http://www.keystonemac.com/characterPalette.html

Last week most of those characters would not have showed because I just reinstalled my OS and I haven't had the chance yet to clean out my fonts — it's not just the OS; those fonts must be installed. Long endless font menus displaying font sets I never use is a bit patronizing.

They all display correctly for me. However, I have trouble posting the full character set on OS/X using Safari. I just downloaded Firefox, let's see if it does any better:

Hwæt! We Gār-Dena in geār-dagum,

僕は英語とドイツ語話します。

جورج ووكر بوش أو جورج و. بوش (بالإنجليزي

Hmmm. They display okay. But the only way I can get them is to copy from someone else's post. The "insert special character" command in Safari is missing in Firefox.

Couldn't you go to System Preferences>International>Input Menu and select the keyboards? If you check the show input menu in menu bar option, can't you select different input options? (I haven't tried this in a browser so I don't know if it works)

item 2 displays as a string of question marks.
below that appears to be japanese or korean.

Where'd that bit of Arabic come from?
From your bit of arabic.

item 2 displays as a string of question marks.
below that appears to be japanese or korean.
That's what I get. I assume there's a way to install those fonts?

go to microsoft's website, surely, somewhere. look up 'fonts', and go on from there.

but having those fonts hanging around for no other reason than to display Athelwulf's hobbies is I think a waste of system resources

I think he actually just typed in question marks?????????????????

I think he actually just typed in question marks?????????????????

I don't see any question marks.

That's what I get. I assume there's a way to install those fonts?
haven't a clue.

all the rest displays properly.

could this be helpful?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/177561#top

item 2 displays as a string of question marks.
below that appears to be japanese or korean.

Is "below that" still item two? If it is, then it's a picture of the Japanese text which is item two. Try highlighting stuff and see what's a picture and what isn't.

but having those fonts hanging around for no other reason than to display Athelwulf's hobbies is I think a waste of system resources

You say that until you want to read what I wrote in Chinese, or Arabic. Then you'll go, "Oh how I wish I partook in Athelwulf's hobbies!" :p

I think he actually just typed in question marks?????????????????

Nope. I'll get a screen shot and show you guys what it looks like to me.

Here is my screenshot. (http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/Athelwulf/ScreenieLanguages.gif)

I thought you were getting a Mac.

What makes you think I won't?

What makes you think I won't?

... it seems like ages now that I thought you were shopping around for a new computer. But I'm sure with an answer like that you're also keeping tabs on Apple hardware, and that there are several revisions on the horizon, like there's talk of a new subnotebook that will be using flash memory.

Is "below that" still item two?
yes.

I thought you were getting a Mac.
what is that in your avatar?
why are you using a small font?

... it seems like ages now that I thought you were shopping around for a new computer. But I'm sure with an answer like that you're also keeping tabs on Apple hardware, and that there are several revisions on the horizon, like there's talk of a new subnotebook that will be using flash memory.

I see.

what is that in your avatar?
why are you using a small font?

I add to the interrogation: Who are you, and how do you know I've been looking at Macs for a while now?

I add to the interrogation: Who are you, and how do you know I've been looking at Macs for a while now?
apparently a former member or a sock puppet.
skinwalker knows their true identity (supposedly).

I didn't know you used OS X.Yes, I'm the rare IT professional who doesn't enjoy spending an hour a day wrestling with Windows. I regard my computer as an appliance and the damn thing had better be as easy to take for granted as my car. I have to use a Windows box for work and I can't believe the computer geeks, who write software for other computer geeks, believe they're going to market an "information infrastructure" built upon that drenn to five-point-something billion people who can't work a photocopier or set the clock on a VCR.I have keyboard layouts for different languages in the language toolbar on my taskbar (I use XP). Have you tried this, and does it work?It works fine although I haven't tried it here. The problem is that I'm not familiar with the keyboard layouts so finding the right key for the character takes forever. It's faster to pick it off a menu even if it requires scrolling.item 2 displays as a string of question marks. below that appears to be japanese or korean.I don't know how you're numbering your items but Old English is on top, Japanese in the middle, and Arabic on the bottom. You can tell Japanese from Chinese because of the peppering of simplified alphabetic characters that look like cursive writing. You can distinguish Korean from either of those two because its alphabetic characters have honest-to-Euclid circles.

It works fine although I haven't tried it here. The problem is that I'm not familiar with the keyboard layouts so finding the right key for the character takes forever. It's faster to pick it off a menu even if it requires scrolling.

Fair enough, but I find that all the ones I use, except the Russian one, are very similar to the standard English keyboard.

I don't know how you're numbering your items

I got the items labeled in bold with "Item one", "Item two", etc.

Wikipedia has a good guide to installing language support on different systems:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Multilingual_support_%28East_Asian%29

Wikipedia has a good guide to installing language support on different systems:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Multilingual_support_%28East_Asian%29

Good work, sir. :D

And for those who want to know, I just found out there's a word for when foreign type is rendered as a series of weird symbols: mojibake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojibake).