How Café and Café are actually different, and only one of those can be a filename in macOS, despite APFS being a non-normalising file system.
normalisation
Normalises strings to any of the four standard Unicode normalisation forms C, D, KC or KD, supplied with source.
How to hide text so that it can’t be searched or analysed, and how file naming almost brought APFS down.
Universal App which gives deep insight into Unicode normalisation problems, string comparison, and more.
Open a PDF document, select a URL within it and Copy. Then paste it into a webpage for publication. Simple – but the URL then broke. Why?
Use Finder aliases at the command line, compare extended attributes of two files, and normalise Unicode strings.
Dystextia encodes and decodes obfuscated or spoofed Unicode text. Apfelstrudel analyses Unicode normalisation, ideal when working with text on computers.
iOS 10.3, released on 27 March 2017, thrust the new file system on a great many unsuspecting users. Apple chose a high risk strategy. Has it paid off?
Both apps have been notarized now, for added security protection, particularly when used in Mojave.
Trying to work with Unicode can be frustrating at times. Here’s an excellent free book with valuable practical tips for all users, and much more for linguists too.
