# t?sti? f?n?t?k f?nt **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 19, 2006, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284 "2006-04-19T13:59:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/1 "2006-04-19T13:59:28Z")
ð?s ?z e t?st. h?lo w?rld. kwa?t dis?nt akt?u?li. l?ts si ha? ?t l?ks æft?r posti?, ?all wi ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/2 "2006-04-19T14:01:34Z")
Language like that is better suited to the Pit. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/3 "2006-04-19T14:01:53Z")
Let me guess, the only free computer in the library was set to Japanese, and you don’t know how to switch it back to English. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/4 "2006-04-19T14:03:09Z")
hmmph. obviously not. t?sti? f?n?t?k fant. ð?s ?s e t?st. w?rki? na? p?rhæps, l?ts si… ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/5 "2006-04-19T14:05:22Z")
It’s a phonetic font (Doulos SIL) + an IPA keyboard layout. I guess vBulletin doesn’t much care for those unicode characters! Works fine in TextEdit though. ---
**Author:** ![dogbutler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogbutler/32/428_2.png) [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/6 "2006-04-19T15:13:43Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > ð?s ?z e t?st. h?lo w?rld. kwa?t dis?nt akt?u?li. l?ts si ha? ?t l?ks æft?r posti?, ?all wi [Khidir beneath Momouteh](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmok_(TNG_episode)) ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/7 "2006-04-19T18:21:08Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > t?sti? f?n?t?k fant. Cthulhu fhtagn! Cthulhu fhtagn! ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/8 "2006-04-19T18:45:14Z")
Klaatu Barada Ni_cough cough mumble_ ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/9 "2006-04-19T19:04:38Z")
fnord ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/10 "2006-04-19T20:14:16Z")
言語は好むピットへよりよく適する ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/11 "2006-04-19T21:55:10Z")
ð?s – a deer, a female deer ?z – a drop of goldern sun t?st. – a name I call myself ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/12 "2006-04-20T10:01:02Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > I guess vBulletin doesn’t much care for those unicode characters! I have never seen any evidence that vBulletin will mangle any characters at all. The worst it does is mangle HTML character entities by gratuitously replacing all ampersands with & even if they form an entity. I will appreciate actual _evidence_ to the contrary. There are two possible reasons people may not be seeing the characters correctly: Their browser doesn’t know which character representation the page is in and has defaulted badly, or they simply don’t have a font capable of supplying the needed glyphs. Second, which Unicode encoding were you using? [Just saying Unicode is meaningless.](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/printerFriendly/articles/Unicode.html) ---
**Author:** ![Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tyrrell_mcallister/32/16772_2.png) [@Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tyrrell_McAllister)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2006, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/13 "2006-04-21T05:22:34Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > I have never seen any evidence that vBulletin will mangle any characters at all. The worst it does is mangle HTML character entities by gratuitously replacing all ampersands with & even if they form an entity. I have the same problem as **AHunter3**. I suspect that the cause is posting from a Mac. I’ve noticed that vB will _not_ replace ampersands with & if the material between the ‘&’ and the ‘;’ consists of ‘#’ followed by numbers. So I can’t write ‘∪’ to get a union symbol. But if I write ‘∪’ instead, I get ∪. Strangely, when I preview, the edit field is changed. Now, instead of the ∪ that I wrote, I see ∪ _in the edit field_ (as well as in the preview of my post). But if I then try and post what is now in the edit field, the symbol ∪ will not appear correctly. Instead, I’ll get a question mark: ? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2006, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/14 "2006-04-21T06:00:36Z")
> [@](#): > > Strangely, when I preview, the edit field is changed. Now, instead of the ∪ that I wrote, I see ∪ in the edit field (as well as in the preview of my post). But if I then try and post what is now in the edit field, the symbol ∪ will not appear correctly. Instead, I’ll get a question mark: **AHunter3** , this raises the question: Did you preview? And if you try again without previewing, does it work? This is also incidentally a test to see what will happen to the material I quoted. ---
**Author:** ![Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stark_Raven_Mad)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2006, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/15 "2006-04-21T06:19:10Z")
這就奇怪了, 你寫的是什麽, 我一點也看不懂. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2006, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/16 "2006-04-21T17:59:22Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Second, which Unicode encoding were you using? [Just saying Unicode is meaningless.](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/printerFriendly/articles/Unicode.html) Fascinating. Really. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/17 "2006-04-22T06:21:10Z")
> [@Tyrrell McAllister](#): > > I’ve noticed that vB will _not_ replace ampersands with & if the material between the ‘&’ and the ‘;’ consists of ‘#’ followed by numbers. So I can’t write ‘∪’ to get a union symbol. But if I write ‘∪’ instead, I get > > ∪. I didn’t know this. It doesn’t make it any more convenient for me, or anyone else, and it makes me wonder why the hell they bothered to break the named entities and not the annyoing-as-hell numeric ones. Are they _trying_ to piss me off? > [@](#): > > Strangely, when I preview, the edit field is changed. Now, instead of the ∪ that I wrote, I see ∪ _in the edit field_ (as well as in the preview of my post). But if I then try and post what is now in the edit field, the symbol ∪ will not appear correctly. Instead, I’ll get a question mark: > > ? And I see the cup ∪ in the edit field as well. Weird. Stupid, annoying, wrong, broken, bagbiting, crippled, brain-damaged, losing, cretinous, and utterly foul, but weird just the same. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/18 "2006-04-22T06:26:12Z")
I previewed that post and almost everything came out right (the entities were all fully translated, however). My default character encoding is Latin-1 (ISO 8859-1), but I have full UTF-8 (at least) support. Cut-and-pasted cup: ∪ Made-by-hand cup: ∪ Not-a cup: ∪ Juvenile cup: I C U P. Previewed, and only the ‘Made-by-hand cup’ was translated. ---
**Author:** ![Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tyrrell_mcallister/32/16772_2.png) [@Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tyrrell_McAllister)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/19 "2006-04-22T06:32:56Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > I didn’t know this. It doesn’t make it any more convenient for me, or anyone else, and it makes me wonder why the hell they bothered to break the named entities and not the annyoing-as-hell numeric ones. Are they _trying_ to piss me off? What’s even more annoying is that ∪ _used_ to work on the SDMB. But around a year or two ago, after one of the updates, it no longer did. I have some posts around here that looked fine when I made them, but since that update, they’re full ampersands. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284/20 "2006-04-22T11:10:36Z")
> [@Tyrrell McAllister](#): > > What’s even more annoying is that ∪ _used_ to work on the SDMB. But around a year or two ago, after one of the updates, it no longer did. I have some posts around here that looked fine when I made them, but since that update, they’re full ampersands. I know this. I once did a post containing Greek and Hebrew characters to explain the cardinality of infinite sets, and the only thing that made it something other than completely fucking annoying was that I did it when the SDBM didn’t gratuitously break named character entities. You’re preaching to not the choir, but the Grand Inquisitor readying the hot oil and nasty pincers and rectally-insertable poison ivy-laced cacti. Screw the puking smilie. We need a homicidally enraged geek smilie. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-sti-f-n-t-k-f-nt/353284.md?page=2)