Re: Testing for UTF-8 tty mode

[Birger Langkjer <birger.langkjer@image.dk>]

Den tor, 16 sep 1999 skrev du:
> Markus Kuhn wrote:
...
> > However as soon as you want to enter a regular expression into less, you
> > really want to have the keyboard also in UTF-8 mode, because otherwise
> > you couldn't enter non-ASCII characters. It makes absolutely no sense to
> > have the screen in UTF-8 mode but the keyboard not if you use less,
> > because string search would become unusable for non-ASCII characters
> > otherwise.
> > 
> > Therefore, whenever you have the screen in UTF-8 mode, you also want the
> > keyboard to be in the same mode.
> 
> Not necessarily.  Only if you want to type a search string that contains
> non-ASCII characters.  Mostly I only type <Space> and <b> in less...

In yudit, to write the unicode character U+1260, you first type 'b' and
then 'e' to get the ethiopian 'be' sign, but less could interpret 'b' as
the accelerator key unless it is in search mode. 

I know similar methods are used for entering chinese and other languages
with too many glyphs for a qwerty keyboard to handle. 

> Also, there are other ways to enter non-ASCII characters.  For example, by
> holding the ALT key and typing the key code on the numeric keypad.  No need to
> switch the keyboard to UTF8 mode.  Not that this is a nice solution, but it
> does avoid problems with switching the keyboard to another mode.

I'm sorry, but this is not a very practical or intuitive solution for
most users. How many people keep a printout of a character table by
their workstation? 

> Another thing is the input method.  Is that independent from the encoding?
> I suppose so.  Perhaps someone can tell if all input methods work with all
> encodings.  I suspect it's not so.  Then switching to UTF8 might disable the
> use of a certain input method.  At least until it is made to support UTF8.

Assigning characters to keys is independent from the encoding AFAIK. 
I assume that most non-western computer users will also need to input
ASCII characters at some point, so they'll need a way of switching to
ASCII keyboard layout. I think ^N & ^O on console and xkb i X. Windoze
and KDE have an icon on the panel that you click on to select input
method.

I think the only part of unicode that is relevant to us right now is
the one that assigns numbers to glyphs. 

...
> > You will spot non-UTF-8 file quickly, because they look funny in your
> > UTF-8 terminal emulator.
> 
> Can you define funny??

Usually you'll see a little white '?' on a black background instead of
the non-ASCII character. Not exactly hilarious but perhaps good for a
little giggle :-)

...
> I am currently using binaries that were compiled more than five years ago.
> This switch to UTF8 probably means I have to get rid of those.  That is not an
> attactive option...  At least with the switch from a.out to elf I was able to
> recompile the programs.  For the switch to UTF8 the sources need to be
> changed.  That is much more complicated.

Some users still have the same old slackware they installed 4-5 years
ago but heavily modified. Others, like me, reinstall Linux everytime a
new Redhat comes out. I don't know which is more normal, but considering
4-5 years is probably the normal lifespan of a PC, I'll bet the
transition can be made in that time. 10 years is too long. 

-- 
Med venlig hilsen/Best regards
Birger Langkjer
http://members.xoom.com/langkjer
-
Linux-UTF8:   i18n of Linux on all levels
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