Unicode support in perl is broken.

That isn’t even vaguely true, let alone concretely true. Just because one person does not understand something, or because another person doesn’t like something, does in no fashion mean that that something is somehow “broken”. To claim otherwise is tantamount to spreading leyendas negras and perilously close to spreading FUD. We need neither of those.

Having fought my way through the many, many ways that Unicode does not work properly in various other languages like Java, C#, Python, Ruby, PHP, and Javascript, not to mention the original misguided implementation of Unicode support from Perl 5.6 that’s been thankfully redesigned since then, I am completely confident that Perl’s Unicode support is not only not broken, but also that the Unicode support in Perl is superior to that in all those languages I’ve just mentioned.

Now, it is actually true that Unicode support has improved in the 5.14 release of Perl. However, Unicode support in Perl has been perfectly serviceable for many years now. To pretend that it is “broken” may be misunderstanding, it may be disagreement, and it may be bitter bluster, but it is simply and fundamentally not true.

It is also misleading and harmful to hear repeated. It helps nothing and only hurts people, people who may be naïvely deceived by this facile deceit. Here is what you should do instead:

• If you think it should work differently, then submit a patch.
• If you think there is a bug, then file a bug report.
• If you are unwilling to take either of those two constructive steps, then please do the world the courtesy of not repeating a simple-minded slogan that is so patently false, misleading, and hurtful.

Those are the only reasonable choices. If none of those “appeals” to you, then please gain some proper perspective by seriously trying out those other languages’ implementations of Unicode support. Who knows, you might even like them better than you do Perl’s.

If it irks you to paddle upstream all the time, then turn around and go the other way. Save yourself some grief — and the rest of us, too.

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