Subj : Re: UTF-8 nodelist report
To   : Michiel van der Vlist
From : Eugene Subbotin
Date : Fri Sep 30 2016 17:37:50

   Hello Michiel!

30 Sep 16 12:20, you wrote to me:

 MvdV> I understand RC50 is asking for just that.

Yes. He said if there will be at least 5 NC's who needs UTF-8 in segments,
he will set his nodelist checkers up.

 MvdV> BTW, the ZC2's naming convention for UTF-8 region segments is UTFRxx.

Yes, that's my fail. :)

 ES>> There are too few sysops that supports UTF-8. Mainly because
 ES>> there are no any FTN editors that can natively support multi-byte
 ES>> charsets
 MvdV> A chicken and egg problem. The only FTN software that can do UTF-8
 MvdV> without the use of an external editor is the MBBS package AFAIK. It
 MvdV> would be nice if we could get someone to make Golded fully UTF-8
 MvdV> comapatible. If that were to happen, surely more sysop would be
 MvdV> interested. And thet would create more demand for UTF-8 capable FTN
 MvdV> message editors. Etc..


Yes, GoldED+ and MsgED as the most common editors which are used now.
Fully UTF-compliant FTN editor would move UTF-8 implementation process
to another level. I don't know where to find developers who would rewrite
FTN editors code, but this is the most acute problem for today :(

 ES>> without so-called «костылей» (crunches).
 MvdV> I think you mean "kludges".

Yes, "kludges" is the best synonym in English. :) "Crutches" and "bicycles"
are common in "development" practice. So, "crutches" means workarounds/dirty
hacks, and "developing the bicycle" means "reinventing the wheel" in Russian.

 MvdV> But... now we are talking message editors. This thread started out
 MvdV> with the nodelist. And for the nodelist, we do not need to call upon
 MvdV> the

But what is the main goal of UTF-8 nodelist distrubution? Using it in
UTF-compatible software like FTN editors, no?

 MvdV> In the meantime, lacking a fully UTF-8 version of golded, what I do is
 MvdV> that I convert it to the local character set for local use. In my case
 MvdV> CP850. For that there is iconv. The R50 sysops could do the same and
 MvdV> convert their part of the UTF-8 nodelist back to CP866 for local use.
 MvdV> Golded has no problem with compiling a nodelist containing eight bit
 MvdV> characters. Ik is a "костылей", but we have to start
 MvdV> somewhere.

Can't convert it. iconv "stumbles" on the first non-russian myltibyte symbol
with "iconv: (stdin):54:28: cannot convert" error, so I need to use -c option.
And what we will see there? "Blijf_Tonijn" in best case scenario or "Blf_Tnn"
and "Bl?f_T?n?n" in the worst cases (like iconv) instead of "Blijf_Tønijn".

 MvdV>>> In the meantime.. why wait for the the top to take action? You
 MvdV>>> could start a "bottum up initiative" by creating an UTF-8
 MvdV>>> segment for your net and make it available to intersted
 MvdV>>> parties. I am interested in adding UFT5075.nnn to my nodelist
 MvdV>>> compliled for local use.
 ES>> Just uploaded "utfn5075.274" on your station :)
 MvdV> Got it. Thanks. Now I have to decide what to do with it. ;-) I may ask
 MvdV> you for a secure link and regular updates... Stay tuned...

Yes, i can send network segments updates in UTF-8 directly to you. :)
What is the correct file names for UTF-8 network segments?

P.S. Did you see the Mithgol's UTF-7 draft?

Eugene

--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20160827
 * Origin: FireFox Station (2:5075/35)

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