Subj : utf-8 stuff..
To   : Maurice Kinal
From : August Abolins
Date : Mon Jan 19 2026 12:19 pm

Hello Maurice!

 >> Currently using Lucinda Console TTF

 MK> That shouldn't mess with the actual codes stored within the message.  If
 MK> it does then you have a crippled terminal.  Even an old abandonware DOS
 MK> editor will honour the codes despite the fact it cannot reproduce the
 MK> proper charaters for display purposes.  My best guess is that OpenXP has
 MK> issues that have nothing to do with your choice in fonts.  On the plus
 MK> side it is in good company, msged and golded come to mind.

I seem to remember being able to "activate" a Latvian-keyboard on my Win98  
system, and then.. via simple Alt-[key] presses get the desired umlaut  
version for the letters I needed.  That was all done in a terminal of sorts  
with Frontdoor editor, no problem.

But since XP, that keyboard selection is nolonger available.

I asked chatgpt..

"Latvian uses several Baltic-specific characters (a e i u c g k l n s z), so  
you need a Baltic code page or Unicode. Here are the correct options, by  
platform:

---

## ? Best / Modern (Recommended)

### UTF-8 (Unicode)

* Fully supports Latvian
* Cross-platform (Windows, Linux, macOS)
* Standard for files, terminals, web, email

?? If you have a choice, use UTF-8.

---

## ?? Windows (legacy / non-Unicode)

### Windows-1257 - *Baltic*

* ?? Full Latvian support
* ?? Most common legacy Windows encoding for Latvian
* Used by older Windows apps and files

---

## ?? ISO encodings

### ISO-8859-13 - *Baltic Rim*

* ?? Full Latvian support
* Preferred ISO encoding for Baltic languages

### ISO-8859-4 - *Baltic*

* ?? Partial / outdated
* Some Latvian letters missing or inconsistently mapped
* Not recommended

---

## ?? DOS / Console (very old systems)

### IBM Code Page 775 (CP775) - *Baltic DOS*

* ?? Supports Latvian
* Used in DOS-era Baltic systems

?? Not supported well in modern terminals.

---

## ? Does NOT fully support Latvian

* Windows-1252 (Western European)
* ISO-8859-1
* ASCII

These are missing sever

.