John, JC> That's only true if you take the position that there are no native/direct/raw JC> encodings of Unicode. Oh? You mean that Unicode does not fit directly -- ie, with no special encoding rules -- into 32 bits, or 24 bits, or somesuch. You mean that Unicode does not need special rules to stuff it into 8 bits, and another set of rules to stuff it into 16 bits? Because if the answer is that yes it does -- and the answer _is_ yes it does -- then my point stands. That's the difference between native representation, versus "encoding". d/ -- Dave Crocker <dcrocker-at-brandenburg-dot-com> Brandenburg InternetWorking <www.brandenburg.com> Sunnyvale, CA USA <tel:+1.408.246.8253>