[bug-standards] UTF-8 in documentation files

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello there,

What should GNU software do with names not expressible in ASCII, for
files such as ChangeLog or THANKS?  Would UTF-8 be an acceptable
encoding or should any other kinds of measures be taken?

While maintaining GNU Libtool, we came across the situation for a
Cyrillic name.  The ASCII version of the name would hardly be an
acceptable equivalent.

Should a decision be made, maybe the GCS could be updated to that effect
(I could try to come up with a patch).  As a precedent it could be noted
that, for example, Debian uses UTF-8 encoded changelogs.

Thanks for your consideration, and please, keep me and libtool-patches
in Cc:.

Regards,
Ralf