Recent versions of Windows fully support Unicode in both text and filenames.
FH V6 introduced support of Unicode characters but they don't appear to be widely used.
FH V7 is introducing support for output in languages other than English.
This will no doubt attract many foreign users and increase the use of Unicode characters.
That will lead to Unicode characters appearing in Individual, Place, Source, Media, Project & File names, etc.
Unfortunately, Plugin tools such as Lua and lfs and Penlight do NOT support Unicode.
This means that many Plugins will fail to operate in the presence of Unicode characters.
As an experiment, I have created a Project with Unicode characters in the names listed above.
I then proceeded to run most of the 92 Plugins from the Plugin Store.
Of the 87 Plugins that I ran here are the results:
- 32 failed to run successfully at all.
- 19 ran but reported they "may have failed to handle accent characters correctly", i.e. Unicode.
- 36 seemed to run perfectly OK.
Some may be a simple fix, but many will need major surgery.
I have a simple Plugin that searches for Media records with broken File links, which I have tentatively fixed.
To work with Unicode characters anywhere in the file path name needs luacom CMD prompt commands, and careful scripting to avoid upsetting filenames with Lua functions such as upper(), lower() & gsub(). The Plugin now runs slower.
Note that Unicode characters don't necessarily exist just in the Media filename, but may be in the Project name, or in the C:\Users\<sign-in-name>\, etc. See plugins:code_snippets:unicode_string_functions|> Unicode String Functions (code snippet).
I have reported the problem to Calico Pie who have logged it for investigation.
