The .utf8 in language packs is not meaningful and should be removed

[François Marier]

We only support the UTF-8 encoding for language packages, so something like "en.utf8" should just be called "en".

Here's an idea for how to make the transition:

1- add support for "en" without the .utf8 everywhere (not removing support for en.utf8)
2- switch all of our tools (e.g. the language pack scripts) to produce directories without .utf8
3- issue a warning in the admin area if there are any .utf8 directories and tell admins to rename them
4- in the pre-upgrade checks, check for .utf8 directories and abort
5- stop reading from .utf8 directories

Steps 1 to 3 could be done in the same release, but 4 and 5 need to wait for at least the release after that.

[Robert Lyon (robertl-9)]

I agree that, yes we only run in utf8, and that the .utf8 in folder names is not needed - but to change it will mean work for little or no gain but big headaches to obtain - as all the 3rd party stuff will have .utf8 style directories.

[Aaron Wells (u-aaronw)]

Well-stated, Robert.

To offer a counterpoint, I think the main reason to make this change would be to maintain similarity with Moodle. Our lang system is based on theirs, but in the change from Moodle 1.9 -> 2 they changed their lang folders from "en_utf8" to just "en". So by still having the "_utf8", we look a bit outdated to potential Mahara devs coming over from Moodle.

But as you said, this offers no benefit at all to front-end users.

Cheers,
Aaron