September 1992
Rob Pike and Ken Thompson design UTF-8
Rob Pike and Ken Thompson designed UTF-8A variable-width Unicode encoding — the default text format for the web, JSON, and most modern software. in September 1992 at Bell Labs — the variable-width encoding underlying the modern web; Plan 9 converted within days and a formal paper followed later.
What it was for
UTF-8A variable-width Unicode encoding — the default text format for the web, JSON, and most modern software. let ASCIIAmerican Standard Code for Information Interchange — a character encoding mapping letters and symbols to numbers.-compatible systems handle UnicodeA standard mapping characters from all writing systems to code points — the basis of UTF-8 on the web. without breaking existing software. Every APIApplication programming interface — a defined way for programs to talk to each other or to a service., database, and browser today assumes UTF-8A variable-width Unicode encoding — the default text format for the web, JSON, and most modern software. as the default string encoding.
People
- Rob Pike — co creator
- Ken Thompson — co creator
Why it's here
UTF-8A variable-width Unicode encoding — the default text format for the web, JSON, and most modern software. is the universal text encoding of the internet.
Why it mattered
It enabled global software without abandoning ASCIIAmerican Standard Code for Information Interchange — a character encoding mapping letters and symbols to numbers. infrastructure.
What it solved
Fixed-width UnicodeA standard mapping characters from all writing systems to code points — the basis of UTF-8 on the web. encodings wasted space and broke UnixAn influential multitasking OS from the 1970s — files, pipes, and C shaped Linux, macOS, and BSD. text tools.
Media
ImageRob PikeKevin Shockey, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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