From: "Kaleb S. KEITHLEY" Subject: Re: ISO 8859-1 National Character Set FAQ Date: 1997/04/13 Message-ID: <3350DDB6.FE6@opengroup.org>#1/1 References: Organization: The Open Group Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.admin,comp.windows.x,comp.std.internat,comp.software.international,at.general,soc.culture.german,soc.culture.french,soc.culture.belgium,soc.culture.quebec,soc.culture.nordic,soc.culture.spain,soc.culture.portuguese,soc.culture.latin-american,soc.culture.brazil,soc.culture.argentina,soc.culture.mexico,soc.culture.italian,soc.culture.colombia,soc.culture.venezuela,soc.culture.peru,soc.culture.chile,bit.listserv.catala mike@vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at wrote: > = > = > ISO 8859-1 National Character Set FAQ > = > Michael K. Gschwind > = > > = > > While X11 is farther than most system software when it comes to > internationalization, it still contains many bugs. A number of bug > fixes can be found at URL http://www.dtek.chalmers.se:80/~maf/i18n/. I find it somewhat disturbing that something which purports to be a FAQ is as out of date and as wrong as this is about X11. It's especially disappointing in light of the fact that I have supplied Michael with up to date information. Please note that while the information about X11 on Martin Forss=E9n's page is generally correct, it only applies to R5 and very early patch levels of R6.0; and not to fully patched versions of R6.0, R6.1, or R6.3. If you try and apply his patches to anything other than early patch releases of the X Consortium release of R6.0 they will, in all likelihood, fail. > 9.1 US-keyboards under X11 > Under X Windows, the COMPOSE multi-language support key can be used to > enter accented characters. Thus, when running X11 on a SunOS-based > computer (or any other X11R4 or X11R5 server supporting COMPOSE > characters), you can type three character sequences such as > COMPOSE " a -> =E4 > COMPOSE s s -> =DF > COMPOSE ` e -> =E8 > to type accented characters. > = > Note that this COMPOSE capability has been removed as of X11R6, > because it does not adequately support all the languages in the world. > Instead, compose processing is supposed to be performed in the client > using an `input method', a mechanism which has been available since > X11R5. (In the short term, this is a step backward for European > users, as few clients support this type of processing at the moment. > It is unfortunate that the X Consortium did not implement a mechanism I don't think it's the least bit "unfortunate" that the X Consortium took a stance of "doing it right" versus "perpetuating a hack;" I've told Michael this on several occasions, and yet this comment remains here in the FAQ, year after year. That not withstanding, this is another case of outdated and patently just wrong information. Compose capability was never removed from X11R6, it has been there since X11R5 and is still there in all the releases of X11R6. What Michael is refering to is the fact that there was a hack that was available for the R5 Xsun and XFree86 servers that was used by people who didn't know about or understand how to use what was already built-in. It seems that he, and perhaps others jumped to the conclusion, somehow, that the X Consortium was going to adopt this hack, and were disappointed when it was not. Yes, it was unfortunate that the X Consortium release of X11R6.0 did not have an xterm with compose capability; however this was remedied soon afterward in one of XFree86's releases, and has since also been remedied in X11R6.1 and X11R6.3. I think it's safe to say that by now, most everyone who's not using a vendor product release of X11 is using either XFree86 or X11R6.1 or X11R6.3, so this "problem" isn't really hurting anyone. > which allows for a smoother transition. Even the xterm terminal > emulator supplied by the X Consortium itself does not yet support this > mechanism!) Again, this is just plain outdated information. Xterm in the X Consortium releases of R6.1 and R6.3 does have compose capability. I, for one, would appreciate it if people who purport to be an authority on a particular subject, would take the time to update and correct the material they're posting, or else stop posting it until such time as they can ascertain that it is both accurate and up to date. -- Kaleb KEITHLEY ex-X Consortium Open Group (OSF) X Project