The history of UTF-8

Wednesday 10 November 2004This is nearly 20 years old. Be careful.

Looking up some details of UTF-8 in the always-fabulous Wikipedia, I found this choice tidbit:

UTF-8 was invented by Ken Thompson on September 2, 1992 on a placemat in a New Jersey diner with Rob Pike. The day after, Pike and Thompson implemented it and updated their Plan 9 operating system to use it throughout.

I had no idea that the Bell Labs superheroes were behind it! Wikipedia also kindly provided a link to Rob Pike’s authoritative recounting of the history.

Comments

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Chix dig UTF-8!

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