[Tickets #7959] Re: Patch to make File_PDF work with mbstring.func_overload

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Ticket URL: http://bugs.horde.org/ticket/7959
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  Ticket             | 7959
  Updated By         | Jan Schneider <jan at horde.org>
  Summary            | Patch to make File_PDF work with mbstring.func_overload
  Queue              | Horde Framework Packages
  Version            | FRAMEWORK_3
  Type               | Bug
-State              | Feedback
+State              | Not A Bug
  Priority           | 2. Medium
  Milestone          |
  Patch              | 1
  Owners             |
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Jan Schneider <jan at horde.org> (2009-02-06 18:21) wrote:

> The mbstring extension allows working with multi-byte string
> encodings. Pragmatically, using mbstring.func_overloading is the best
> way to develop a UTF-8 application in PHP.

Wrong, it's an unreliable hack.

> When this is not desired is when you are working with binary files or
> streams. Usually in this case you want to work with bytes and not
> characters. The attached patch explicitly uses bytes (the '8bit'
> encoding) for string calculations in a binary context if mbstring
> function overloading is enabled.

That's exactly one of the reasons why you shouldn't use overloading.  
Undesired side-effects, and yet more hacks to work around stuff being  
broken by the hack called overloading.