Re: LYNX-DEV minor display problem (?character 0xA2?)

[Klaus Weide]

On Fri, 2 May 1997, Bela Lubkin wrote:

> Klaus Weide wrote:
> > Why oh why do you insist on using "IBM PC character set" when that is
> > obviously not the right setting for your circumstances???
> 
> Because it is the closest choice.  There is no choice for "IBM PC
> character set except 0x9B and 0x00-0x1F".  I think Lynx doesn't try to
> use the 0x00-0x1F chars when operating under "IBM PC character set", so
> my display differs in only one encoding from what Lynx expects.  

It doesn't send C0 control characters (0x00-0x1F), unless they are meant
as control characters...

Well it shouldn't.  The chartrans code may currently not behave well in
that respect, there are certainly ways to make chars in that range go
to the terminal.

> Same with the Linux console.

Not the same with the Linux console.  At least I couldn't reproduce it.
A 0x9B which is written to the console isn't treated differently from
other C1 chars (2.0.6 kernel).  A glyph from a loaded font is shown if
there is one for that code point.
But let me know if you can find a combination of modes and loaded fonts
where 

  echo -e '\2331mXYZ\2330m'
turns intensity on and off, like
  echo -e '\033\1331mXYZ\033\1330m'
does.

> So, it's a sad state of affairs, but apparently more sets of display
> character sets are needed.  Both SCO and Linux consoles are susceptible
> to this; both would be happier with an IBM-PC-except-0x9B character set.

I deny that this is true for Linux consoles, see above; there is no good
reason to prevent Linux console users from seeing a '¢' character if they
happen to use a text font in "IBM PC character set" encoding.

But anyway, if you think such a new character set is needed, you may
want to try it. :)
Adding a new one should now be simpler than before; just make a copy
of another one (in your case, cp437_uni.tbl) and make some modifications,
and give it a different name.  There are some notes on how to add it in
README.tables in the src/chrtrans/ directory.  No-one (to my knowledge)
has ever tested whether that procedure makes sense, so be the first!

There is also e specific test for just this char 0x9B in src/GridText.c.
It is blocked in some cases, but not for IBM PC character set.
That may have also to be modified.

> (Let's not try to get access to 0x00..0x1F, 0x9B through
> console-specific hacks...)

How about a non-vendor-specific, standards-based way?
Linux consoles support UTF-8, you can access the glyphs for all 256
(or 512) font positions that way.

  Klaus


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