[14933] in Athena Bugs
Re: sgi 8.0I: frame
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mike Barker)
Fri Jan 31 15:24:40 1997
To: Michael Decerbo <mike@MIT.EDU>
Cc: bugs@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 19 Jan 1997 00:22:18 EST."
<199701190522.FAA09097@m66-080-12.MIT.EDU>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 15:24:31 EST
From: Mike Barker <mbarker@MIT.EDU>
Hi, Mike.
The basic problem is that ASCII does not go beyond 127. The
"accented" characters you are using are not standardized, and indeed,
the PC and Macintosh differ in their use of them. Various vendors
have used the high bit set characters in slightly different ways.
To put it another way--with eight bit characters, there is a standard
mapping of bit patterns to characters for the first 127. There is NOT
a standard mapping of bit patterns to characters for the high bit set
bit patterns. Various vendors, country sets, and so forth have done
various mappings.
I suggest that if you are trying to use foreign language characters or
something like that, you may want to investigate unicode or other efforts
to standardize larger character sets. Basic ASCII simply does not provide
support for these character sets, as you have noted in your experiments
with xmodmap, xemacs, and Frame.
You may find that you can get the characters you are trying to use in
Frame by using specific character sets in xemacs or via your xmodmap
hack. However, it is unlikely that the necessary sequences will
appear the same when displayed "directly on the screen." Incidentally,
"directly on the screen" probably means in an xterm, which is basically
an emulation of a DEC VT100 terminal.
It is probably easier to use Frame to enter the characters you want
(assuming it has what you want in its mapping of character sets,
fonts, etc.) and just stick to the way it represents things. Going
between programs when using italics, accented characters, and so on
often does not work at present.
Thank you for using Athena
Mike Barker
:) -- using template mhl.format --
:) Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 00:22:18 EST
:) To: bugs@MIT.EDU
:) cc: mike@MIT.EDU
:)
:) From: Michael Decerbo <mike@MIT.EDU>
:) Subject: sgi 8.0I: frame
:)
:) System name: m66-080-12
:) Type and version: IP22 8.0I
:) Display type: GR3-XZ
:)
:) What were you trying to do?
:) I wanted to both import and type text including accented
:) characters above ASCII 127. I can create a file in xemacs using this
:) kind of high-bit text, and I wanted to import such a file into
:) Frame. I also have xmodmap files that let me type high-ASCII
:) characters directly at the screen.
:)
:) What's wrong:
:) Frame doesn't display, nor print, the same characters input or
:) typed. For instance, whenever I type the letter at ASCII 193, (if
:) ASCII went that high) Frame displays the character at code 231. If I
:) import a character 194 from a file, I see the letter for code 235 on
:) the screen. Frame also prints the incorrect characters. If I print the
:) file from xemacs *using the same exact font*, everything is fine-- so
:) I know I'm not pulling up the wrong font.
:)
:) What should have happened:
:) I should have gotten the same character I type or that I
:) imported from xemacs, I should think, just like I do for characters
:) lower than ASCII 127.
:)
:) Please describe any relevant documentation references:
:)
