Unicode and UTF-8: The Architecture of Text Serialization 1. Foundations of Text Representation 1.1 The Four-Layer Text Model 1.2 Historical Context: From ASCII to Unicode 1.3 Encoding Terminology and Concepts 2. Unicode Architecture Deep Dive 2.1 The Seventeen Planes 2.2 Character Categories and Properties 2.3 Grapheme Clusters and Extended Grapheme Clusters 3. Unicode Normalization Forms 3.1 Canonical Equivalence and Compatibility Equivalence 3.2 The Four Normalization Forms 3.3 Engineering Implications of Normalization 4. UTF-8 Encoding: The Technical Deep Dive 4.1 Variable-Width Encoding Design 4.2 The UTF-8 Encoding Algorithm 4.3 Decoding and Validation 4.4 Self-Synchronization Property 4.5 Overlong Encoding and Security Implications 5. UTF-16 and the Surrogate Pair Problem 5.1 The Origins of UTF-16 5.2 The String Abstraction Leak 5.3 Working with Surrogate Pairs 6. Database Engineering Considerations 6.1 Character Set Configuration 6.2 Collation and Sorting 6.3 Index Considerations 6.4 Storage Efficiency Trade-offs 7. Implementation Patterns and Common Pitfalls 7.1 Encoding Detection and Validation 7.2 Character Counting and Length Limits 7.3 URL and HTTP Encoding 7.4 JSON and Text Formats 8. Security Considerations 8.1 Encoding-Based Attacks 8.2 Output Encoding and Injection Prevention 8.3 Validation and Sanitization 9. Conclusion and Best Practices Further Reading
