Re: character encoding in .desktop files

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

Darin Adler <darin bentspoon com> writes:
> How can we change .desktop files to use UTF-8 encoding? What encoding do they
> currently use? What compatibility concerns will there be if we change the encoding
> between GNOME 1 and GNOME 2?

Check out the desktop file spec on freedesktop.org; they are currently
in Legacy-Mixed encoding, should be in UTF-8. They can be changed one
at a time.

To convert, I would suggest:
 - make sure the GNOME 2 .desktop code always saves in UTF-8
 - load them using that code, which should convert to 
   UTF-8, then save them again

We can write a small utility program that does this.

Havoc