accents in xterm emacs

accents in xterm emacs

[Jean Magnan de Bornier]

Hello all,
-emacs21.2.1, debian woody, gnus oort v0.07-
My emacs uses iso-8859-15 coding and this works nicely when in X. But when
I start it in an xterm with "-nw" the following problems appear:
-When I write letters with  french accents like é or à emacs does some
strange moves, and my letters do not appear on the screen, whatever kind
of program I use.
-When I read files I see the accents in all cases except when reading
messages in gnus: accented letters there are replaced by question marks.
I wish I could use emacs -nw as easily as emacs!
Thanks for any idea,
--
Jean Magnan de Bornier
3 Cours Victor Hugo, 13980 Alleins   France
Tel: 04 90 59 33 94    Port: 06 09 17 35 87
mèl: jean.magnan*at*bornier.net

Re: accents in xterm emacs

[Jean Magnan de Bornier]

Martin Schmitz <dosenfleisch@gmx.de> a écrit notamment:

> Jean Magnan de Bornier <jean.magnan@bornier.net> writes:
>
>> -emacs21.2.1, debian woody, gnus oort v0.07-
>> My emacs uses iso-8859-15 coding and this works nicely when in X. But when
>> I start it in an xterm with "-nw" the following problems appear:
>> -When I write letters with  french accents like é or à emacs does some
>> strange moves, and my letters do not appear on the screen, whatever kind
>> of program I use.
>
> Try 'TERM=linux && emacs -nw'.
Yes, this solves my problem number one, but not the other one (no more
accented letters can be read within gnus). Besides I lose my "M" key,
which is kind of disturbing in emacs ;). I could not find it anywhere else.
Thanks anyway..

--
Jean Magnan de Bornier
3 Cours Victor Hugo, 13980 Alleins   France
Tel: 04 90 59 33 94    Port: 06 09 17 35 87
mèl: jean.magnan*at*bornier.net

Re: accents in xterm emacs

[Stefan Monnier <foo@acm.com>]

>> Try 'TERM=linux && emacs -nw'.
> Yes, this solves my problem number one,

Huh !?  Does anybody know why this works ?
I thought that C-x RET k (aka set-keyboard-coding-system) was unavoidable.

> accented letters can be read within gnus). Besides I lose my "M" key,
> which is kind of disturbing in emacs ;). I could not find it anywhere else.

Maybe your terminal sends the same code for M-i as for é, in which
case you'll first need to figure out how to tell it to send different
codes so that Emacs can tell the difference.
Usually, terminals can be configured to turn the meta key into an ESC
prefix (which is Emacs understands automatically).  See the metaSendsEscape
and the eightBitInput resources of your xterm.


        Stefan

Re: accents in xterm emacs

[Jean Magnan de Bornier]

"Stefan Monnier <foo@acm.com>"
<monnier+gnu.emacs.help/news/@flint.cs.yale.edu> 
a écrit notamment:

>>> Try 'TERM=linux && emacs -nw'.
>> Yes, this solves my problem number one,
>
> Huh !?  Does anybody know why this works ?
> I thought that C-x RET k (aka set-keyboard-coding-system) was unavoidable.
>
>> accented letters can be read within gnus). Besides I lose my "M" key,
>> which is kind of disturbing in emacs ;). I could not find it anywhere else.
>
> Maybe your terminal sends the same code for M-i as for é, in which
> case you'll first need to figure out how to tell it to send different
> codes so that Emacs can tell the difference.
> Usually, terminals can be configured to turn the meta key into an ESC
> prefix (which is Emacs understands automatically).  See the metaSendsEscape
> and the eightBitInput resources of your xterm.
>
>
>         Stefan
OK I will describe all the symptoms of what happens with my "emacs21 -nw";
my default coding is iso-8859-15.
When I start emacs in xterm, the special characters become:
é: TAB
è: go to next paragraph
ç: message in modeline "set face"
à: same as "F10"
If the I type C-X ret k I have the message to set coding system, with
"default: iso-latin-9" I just hit return and then my special characters are
back, and to obtain M-X I have to type ESC-X (M-X makes the phi small
letter).
When in gnus I still cannot see special char, but all what I described
before works in gnus as in other programs. 
Typing C-X ret t has the following effect: modeline proposes to set coding
with default nil; I hit enter and do it again, and then the proposal is
"default iso-latin-9", I hit enter again and *nothing* is changed !!
Sorry to be so long and curious but I find this strange...
Thanks for any hint that would make emacs work as expected without setting
coding again each time, CU
-- 
Jean Magnan de Bornier
Faculté d'Économie Appliquée
Université Aix-Marseille 3 et GREQAM
15-19 Allée Claude Forbin
13627 Aix-en-Provence cedex 1 France
http://junon.u-3mrs.fr/afa10w40

Re: accents in xterm emacs

[Kai Großjohann]

Jean Magnan de Bornier <jean.magnan@bornier.net> writes:

> If the I type C-X ret k I have the message to set coding system, with
> "default: iso-latin-9" I just hit return and then my special characters are
> back, and to obtain M-X I have to type ESC-X (M-X makes the phi small
> letter).

Yes, your tty interprets M-<foo> as the character foo with the
eighth bit turned on.  (So M-g will produce ç I think.)

xterm can be configured to send ESC <foo> when you hit M-<foo>.  See
the eightBitInput ressource.

> When in gnus I still cannot see special char, but all what I described
> before works in gnus as in other programs. 

What do you see instead of the special chars?
-- 
Ambibibentists unite!

Re: accents in xterm emacs

[Alan Shutko]

Jean Magnan de Bornier <jean.magnan@bornier.net> writes:

> My emacs uses iso-8859-15 coding and this works nicely when in X. But when
> I start it in an xterm with "-nw" the following problems appear:

Does typing C-x C-m t iso-8859-15 RET help?

-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
"Debrief the pilots"? "YESSIR! Right away, Sir!"

Re: accents in xterm emacs

[Jean Magnan de Bornier]

Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> a écrit notamment:

> Jean Magnan de Bornier <jean.magnan@bornier.net> writes:
>
>> My emacs uses iso-8859-15 coding and this works nicely when in X. But when
>> I start it in an xterm with "-nw" the following problems appear:
>
> Does typing C-x C-m t iso-8859-15 RET help?
not a bit!
but thanks anyway :)
--
Jean Magnan de Bornier
3 Cours Victor Hugo, 13980 Alleins   France
Tel: 04 90 59 33 94    Port: 06 09 17 35 87
mèl: jean.magnan*at*bornier.net

Re: accents in xterm emacs

[Kai Großjohann]

Jean Magnan de Bornier <jean.magnan@bornier.net> writes:

> My emacs uses iso-8859-15 coding and this works nicely when in X. But when
> I start it in an xterm with "-nw" the following problems appear:
> -When I write letters with  french accents like é or à emacs does some
> strange moves, and my letters do not appear on the screen, whatever kind
> of program I use.

You need to tell Emacs that your kbd produces iso-8859-15
characters.  Type C-x RET k to do that.

> -When I read files I see the accents in all cases except when reading
> messages in gnus: accented letters there are replaced by question marks.
> I wish I could use emacs -nw as easily as emacs!

You need to tell Emacs that your terminal can display iso-8859-15
characters.  Type C-x RET t to do that.

If you choose the right locale, then Emacs will know both things and
you don't need to tell it.  That's why I started using
LC_CTYPE=de_DE@euro recently.

-- 
Ambibibentists unite!