Encoding Recogniser  Encoding Recogniser

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This view this page, you should have a recent Java installed, preferably 32-bit JRE (Java Runtime Environment) 1.7.0_02.
Helps you determine the encoding of a file by displaying the beginning of it in hex and decoded characters in any of the supported Java encodings. If the file is made only of printable ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) characters, then almost any encoding can be used to read it. If the display shows blanks between each character then chances are you have some variant of UTF-16 encoding. The BOM (Byte Order Mark)s can also be a clue to the encoding. Also try the national encodings of the country where the document came from. For HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) documents you browse of the web, look at the declared encoding in the http-equiv="Content-Type" header using Wireshark. It is often correct. A good bet is North American Windows files will be ISO (International Standards Organisation) 8859-1, Linux files UTF-8 and emails SO (Significant Other) 8859-1.

Best Encodings

There is no mechanism to keep track of which encodingwas used to write a text file. You just have to know. The Encoding Recogniserwill help you guess. Originally this caused no problem, because people rarely exchanged files except with coworkers. Everyone’s files were encoded in the same local national encoding. Today people share files all over the globe. It is best to use ASCII for 7-bit chars, ISO-8859-1 for 8-bit and UTF-8 for 16-bit.

Sorry, you need Java 1.5 or later to run this Applet.

If, EncodingRecogniser, the above Encoding Recogniser signed Java Applet does not work…

  1. Often problems can be fixed simply by clicking the reload button on your browser.
  2. Make sure you have both JavaScript and Java enabled in your browser.
  3. This signed Java Applet needs 32-bit (not 64-bit) Java 1.5 or later. For best results use the latest 1.7.0_02. If you have both 32 and 64-bit JVMs installed, in the Java Control Panel, configure your 32-bit java.exe as the user JVM and your 64-bit java.exe as the system JVM. You also need a recent browser.
  4. It works under any operating system that supports Java e.g. W2K/XP/W2003/Vista/W7-32/W7-64/Linux/OSX
  5. You should see the Applet above looking much like this screenshot. If you don’t, the following hints should help you get it working:
  6. For this Applet to work, you must click grant/accept to give it permission to read a file whose encoding you want to determine.. If you refuse to grant permission, the program may crash with an inscrutable stack dump on the console complaining about AccessController.checkPermission.
  7. Optionally, you may permanently install the Canadian Mind Products code-signing certificate so you don’t have to grant each time.
  8. If the above Applet appears to freeze-up, click Alt-Esc repeatedly to check for any buried permission dialog box.
  9. If you have certificate troubles, check the installed certificates and remove or update any obsolete or suspected defective certificates. The only certificate used by this program is mindprodcert2012dsa.cer.
  10. Especially if this Applet has worked before, try clearing the browser cache and rebooting.
  11. To ensure your Java is up to date, check with Wassup. First, download it and run it as an application independent of your browser, then run it online as an Applet to add the complication of your browser.
  12. If the above Applet does not work, check the Java console for error messages.
  13. If the above Applet does not work, you might have better luck with the downloadable version available below.
  14. If you are using Mac OS X and would like an improved Look and Feel, download the QuaQua look & feel from randelshofer.ch/quaqua. UnZip the contained quaqua.jar and install it in ~/Library/Java/Extensions or one of the other ext dirs.
  15. If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, 8 or 9, try another browser. Seriously. Microsoft has taken great pains, over and over, to screw up Java and every other multi-platform standardisation.
  16. If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, 8 or 9, you must click to allow blocked content permission for Active X to run. This also gives permission to Java to run. Click the Information bar, and then click Allow blocked content. Unfortunately, this also allows dangerous ActiveX code to run. However, you must do this in order to get access to perfectly-safe Java Applets running in a sandbox. This is part of Microsoft’s war on Java. Don’t put up with it! Use a different browser.
  17. If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 9, makes sure the Java Plug-In SSV helper add-in is installed and enabled. If it is not, try reinstalling the Java JRE.
  18. If you have Windows 7 64-bit and Internet Explorer 64-bit, in theory you can use 64-bit Java, but I never been able to get it to work.
  19. Try upgrading to a more recent version of your browser, or try a different browser e.g. Firefox, SeaMoney, Safari or Avant.
  20. If you still can’t get the program working click HELP for more detail.
  21. If you can’t get the above Applet working after trying the advice above and from the HELP button below, have bugs to report or ideas to improve the program or its documentation, please send me an email atemail Roedy Green.
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encodingrecogniser
Encoding Recogniser		 1.2 2010-03-23 free Java
more info ❘ precis ❘ screenshot ❘ browse source repository
for the current version of Encoding Recogniser.
Helps determine a file’s encoding by displaying it presuming all the different supported encodings.
download 907K zip for Encoding Recogniser Java source, compiled class files, jar and documentation to run on your own machine either as an application or an Applet.

First install the most recent Java.

To install, extract the zip download with WinZip, (or similar unzip utility) into any directory you please, often J:\ — ticking off the use folder names option.

To check out the corresponding source from the Subversion repository, use the TortoiseSVN repo-browser to
access encodingrecogniser source in repository with [Tortoise] Subversion client on wush.net/svn/mindprod/com/mindprod/encodingrecogniser/.

After you have installed the jar, you can run it as an application. Type:

java -jar J:\com\mindprod\encodingrecogniser\encodingrecogniser.jar

adjusting as necessary to account for where the jar file is.

download ASP PAD XML program description for the current version of Encoding Recogniser.

Encoding Recogniser is free.
$489.00 US donated so far. If the CMP utilities solved your problem, please donate a buck or two, or donate to one of the charities featured in the footer public service ads throughout the website and get a tax receipt.
Full source included. You may even include the source code, modified or unmodified in free/commercial open source/proprietary programs that you write and distribute. Non-military use only.
  
 
encoding
encoding identificaton student project
Encodings
Official Encoding
other downloads
text files
Wireshark
CMP homejump to top You can get the freshest copy of this page from: or possibly from your local J: drive (Java virtual drive/mindprod.com website mirror)
http://mindprod.com/applet/encodingrecogniser.html J:\mindprod\applet\encodingrecogniser.html
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