html - Is utf-8 a character set or an encoding? -


from understand, unicode character set containing possible characters in languages. utf-8 way represent each of characters in memory. if it's case, why put:

<meta charset="utf-8"> 

and not

<meta encoding="utf-8"> 

in html document indicate utf-8 encoding?

<meta charset="foo"> mostly-compatible-by-luck abbreviation of original html 2.0 <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=foo"> construct. meta http-equiv used (in limited way) smuggle http headers inside html document, construct equivalent setting charset=foo on content-type header of enclosing http response.

the content-type http header taken mime standard used e-mail (rfc2045, rfc1341). standard called charset because predates unicode. in days, iso-8559-1, cp1251 et al considered separate character sets. when unicode came along reformulated them encoded subsets of 1 true character set.

now web has standardised on unicode (actually utf-16 code units, more's pity) character model indeed more accurate describe encoding. name charset has stuck because there no pressing need fix it.


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