Re: relevance of "[PATCH] tty utf8 mode" in linux-kernel 2.6.4-rc1

[Bruno Haible <haible@xxxxxxx>]

> There is also the problem of the TAB: Currently linux/drivers/char/n_tty.c
> also transforms a TAB to a sequence of spaces, and an erase of a TAB to
> a sequence of BACKSPACEs.

Actually the conversion from TAB to spaces occurs only if "stty tab3" is
enabled. The default case is "stty tab0". So really the Linux tty default
behaviour is "modern" here.

However, the erase of a TAB sends multiple 0x08 bytes. This is, as far as I
can see, the only thing that forces n_tty.c to keep track of a "current
column".

It would be useful to add a tty mode where 1. the tab counts as a single
character, 2. 0x08 erases an entire tab or an entire double-width character.
Terminals that follow this convention would then not need a wcwidth in the
kernel.

Bruno


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Linux-UTF8:   i18n of Linux on all levels
Archive:      http://mail.nl.linux.org/linux-utf8/