Fetch Softworks

"Preferred encoding" is really Forced encoding (3 posts)

• Started 14 years ago by Gimbal
• Latest reply 14 years ago from Scott McGuire

• Gimbal Member

  Not sure if this is a bug or a feature: When editing an html file via Fetch in a text editor like TextWrangler, Fetch forces the file to change encoding to Western (Mac OS Roman) regardless of what encoding the file was saved in.

  I'm using Fetch 5.5.3 on Mac OS X 10.5.8. In Preferences > Miscellaneous > Preferred encoding > the default setting is "Western (Mac OS Roman).

  Yesterday, I created several German and French-language HTML files in TextWrangler on my Mac, saving them as Unicode UTF-8 (with BOM). I uploaded the files to my website, and all of my browsers correctly recognized the file's encoding as Unicode and displayed accented characters correctly.

  However, when I opened the html files via Fetch to make a small change, Fetch forced the file into "Western (Mac OS Roman)" and corrupted each of the accented characters into 2 nonsensical characters. Opening the same file again results in the 2 nonsensical characters turning into 4, and so on, until the file is totally corrupted. After 4 open/saves the file became unopenable, and I had to trash the site.

  The only way to avoid this is to change the "Preferred encoding" for each type of file you happen to use. In fact, it is "Forced encoding." I use various encodings, and expect Fetch to recognize each...

  The only solution is to avoid Fetch's editing feature, and just copy files to my desktop, edit locally, and copy back to the server. A real pain. I hope Fetch can fix this bug!

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Ben Artin Administrator

  You're right, the preferred encoding you set in Fetch preferences currently overrides information such as the UTF BOM when you use Fetch to edit a file in BBEdit or TextWrangler.

  An easier way for you to work around this is to open edit the file from Fetch, and then use File > Reopen Using Encoding > Unicode™ (UTF-8). This will cause TextWrangler to reinterpret the file as a UTF-8 file, which will unmangle it.

  Thanks for letting us know about this problem!

  Ben

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Gimbal,

  We believe we have a fix for this problem.

  If you would like to help us test it, please send us an email at bugs@fetchsoftworks.com

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 14 years ago #