Subj : your external editor test of utf-8
To   : Michiel van der Vlist
From : Maurice Kinal
Date : Sun Apr 27 2014 17:00:40

Hey Michiel!

 MvdV> LATIN-1 /IS/ supported by the software of those that use that
 MvdV> encoding.

According to the REAL encoding (ISO-8859-1) LATIN1 is the accepted alias.  They don't mention LATIN-1 nor do the charmaps I deploy here as well as most of the servers on the internet.  Where your software got that encoding is highly questionable given the reality of the situation.

 MvdV> The character set that you refer to as ISO-8859-1 is in
 MvdV> widespread use

For sure.  Also the accepted alias for it is indeed LATIN1 and *NOT* LATIN-1.

 MvdV> ISO-646 /has/ been used in Fidonet messages.

Excellent.  Here is what I've been able to decipher about fts-5003 and it's reported aliasing of the ISO 646 codes;

  ASCII       ISO 646-1 (US ASCII)              ISO646-US
  DUTCH       ISO 646 Dutch                     ????????? (lacking reference)
  FINNISH     ISO 646-10 (Swedish/Finnish)      Unsure guessing ISO646-FI
  FRENCH      ISO 646 French                    ISO646-FR (also exists ISO646-FR1)
  CANADIAN    ISO 646 Canadian                  ISO646-CA (also exists ISO646-CA2)
  GERMAN      ISO 646 German                    ISO646-DE
  ITALIAN     ISO 646 Italian                   ISO646-IT
  NORWEIG     ISO 646 Norwegian                 ISO646-NO (also exists ISO646-NO2)
  PORTU       ISO 646 Portuguese                ISO646-PT (also exists ISO646-PT2)
  SPANISH     ISO 646 Spanish                   ISO646-ES (also exists ISO646-ES2)
  SWEDISH     ISO 646-10 (Swedish/Finnish)      Unsure guessing ISO646-SE and/or ISO646-SE2
  SWISS       ISO 646 Swiss                     ????????? (lacking reference)
  UK          ISO 646 UK                        ISO646-GB
  ISO-10      ISO 646-10 (Deprecated alias)     (lacking reference)

I was unable to find ANY credible references to DUTCH and SWISS.  The 'unsure' ones I din find references but wasn't sure if those were indeed what was intended by fts-5003's aliases for those entries.  One thing I do know for sure is that CANADIAN is a tad misleading since both CA and CA2 were at one time both supported equally.  I haven't run across and ISO 646 codes in decades now, nevermind Fidonet.  However it wouldn't surprise me that there might exist old mainframes in some Canadian gov't building somewhere still using punchcards so anything is possible.  I don't think any of them have nodenumbers though.

 MvdV> Your ZC uses CHRS: LATIN-1 1

Nope.  Last time I noticed it was "CHARSET: LATIN-1".

 MvdV> It /is/ current practise wether you like that or not.

No it isn't.  The majority is still using buggy abandonware that isn't even aware of CHARSET nevermind CHRS.

Life is good,
Maurice

.... Don't cry for me I have vi.
--- GNU bash, version 4.3.11(1)-release (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu)
 * Origin: Pointy Stick Society - Ladysmith BC, Canada (1:153/7001.0)

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