"Perl is not yet fully unicode compatible" is NOT the same as "Perl doesn't support Unicode." 

compatible | kəmˈpadəb(ə)l |
adjective
(of two things) able to exist or occur together without conflict: 
the fruitiness of Beaujolais is compatible with a number of meat dishes.
• (of two people) able to have a harmonious relationship: well-suited: 
it's a pity we're not compatible.
• (of one thing) consistent with another: the symptoms were compatible 
with gastritis or a peptic ulcer.
• Computing (of a computer, a piece of software, or other device) able 
to be used with a specified piece of equipment or software without special 
adaptation or modification: the printer is fully compatible with all 
leading software.

Note especially the definition given under the "Computing" sense of meaning: "able to be used with a specified piece of equipment or software without special adaptation or modification."

There are multiple reasons for saying that "special adaptation or modification" applies here to usage of UTF8 in Perl, not least of which certain incantations must be made to cause Perl to handle it properly--it is NOT the default behavior of Perl to use UTF8!

Does Perl support Unicode? In a sense yes. It allows Unicode to be used, provided one adapts his or her code in certain ways. This can qualify as "support." It does not, however, qualify as being fully "compatible"--as the code must be specially adapted to use UTF8.

EDIT: One can easily see, too, that this forum is not especially UTF8-compatible, either. I used the "<pre>" tags for that dictionary definition which is supposed to handle UTF8 better than the "<code>" tags. Well, the resultant rendering of the unicode characters is on display, and I shall leave it thus.

Blessings,

~Polyglot~

In reply to Re^5: Converting Unicode by Polyglot
in thread Converting Unicode by BernieC

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