Given that mIRC has had utf8 support for quite a while now, can we finally have utf8 encoding fully turned on by default instead of partially turned off by default? (ie, enable all the multibyte options in a new install, and have windows have their utf-8 option set to "display and encode" by default instead of "display" only).

Alternatively, as a holdover until a real decision can be made on whether to force new users to accept utf8 over their locale codepage, could we add an option to the installer that offers users this choice. something along the lines of "Enable all UTF8 functionaly by default" with a checkmark for the installing user to decide whether they want mirc to set everything for him/her, or whether they want to stick with their codepage instead.

- Pomax

I concur. Having UTF-8 (input and output) enabled by default would at last fix the codepage problems that have plagued IRC since its inception.

Simply having it as an option (but turned off by default) will not help much because most casual users of IRC simply have no idea what codepages are or how to fix them. Trying to teach them is for the most part a futile effort, and frankly unnecessary. If mIRC used UTF-8 out of the box, everything Would Just Work (tm).

I disagree about putting another option in the installer though; UTF-8 adoption is IMHO far enough that its encoding can be made the default, no questions asked.