From: Operating system: PHP version: Irrelevant Package: *XML functions Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Bug description:utf8_encode and utf8_decode functions should be deprecated
Description: ------------ The purpose of the functions utf8_encode and utf8_decode are time and again misunderstood and have probably caused more encoding related problems than they have solved. The biggest reason for this is their naming. Their purpose is to *convert* the encoding of a string from ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8, yet they are named in a way that suggests some other magical function that is necessary to work with UTF-8 text. Users looking for "UTF-8 support" in their app quickly find these functions due to their naming and use them without understanding what they do, often only testing with ASCII text which appears to work fine of first sight. Why is ISO-8859-1 presumed to be the default encoding when converting to UTF-8, hence why do these functions occupy such a prominent spot in the namespace? There's simply no good reason for it. The same functionality is available through iconv and mb_convert_encoding. Therefore I suggest to slowly deprecate utf8_encode and utf8_decode to clear up a recurring confusion and consolidate features into the existing, much more versatile iconv and mb_ functions. -- Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=60429&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=trysnapshot54 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.3): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=trysnapshot53 Try a snapshot (trunk): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=trysnapshottrunk Fixed in SVN: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=fixed Fixed in SVN and need be documented: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=needdocs Fixed in release: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=needscript Try newer version: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=oldversion Not developer issue: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=support Expected behavior: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=notwrong Not enough info: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=submittedtwice register_globals: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=php4 Daylight Savings: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=dst IIS Stability: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=gnused Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=float No Zend Extensions: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60429&r=mysqlcfg
