> >> > To me it looks quite opposite.
> >> > http://www.trackstudio.ru/forum/download/file.php?id=212
> >> > Users would instantly detect and "cry early"
> >>
> >> Aha, and what about the applications that compute in background?
> >
> > And you start them without user interactions at all ?
>
> Any web application producing a garbage like the screen you published
> would simply cause user to close the web browser, not to call the
> support.

Not if they need to work with it.
You considered databases that already have some data and used routinely.

That would not allow just "close and forget", users have to do their work.

> > And u change database/jaybird without shutting them down ?
>
> Firebird allows to change that on the fly. But I do not create
> databases with NONE character set, so no need to worry about.

If you did not worry, then no barriers against default change.
But you do worry.

> I am not ready to introduce such change in 2.2.0.

Giving dates of 2.1.0 and 2.1.6 that sounds like the Bright Future...
Say in 4-6 years from today there would be 2.3.x lineup, in decade there would be 2.4.x

That does not mean you have to bake new versions like Chrome or later Mozilla do. That just a fact that 2.2.0 is most major update for years to come.

> > Or You can implicitly apply some heuristics.
>
> No heuristics - only simple rules.

That is not mutually exclusive.

Current fallback to current OS locale is both a simple rule and a heuristics (attempt to guess locale of remote db content)

> very carefull about string-to-byte conversion and back and will pay
> attention to it.

Since i was programming for DOS and Windows i am always carefull what string is.

And since i currently might do to-unicode transition of an app, relying as char-pointers for string passing, ooooh i am careful. I hope i am even pedantic in that area right now :-)

> rules are straightforward - if no charset is specified, we have to use
> the default one. That is the Java convention. That might be different
> from your expectations, but it is how Java world looks like.

My expectation is that there is no that simple elementary thing as "default charset" at all :-)
And experienced Javists making TrackStudio just proved it once again to me :-)