charset question (Windows-1251 and UTF-8 CJK)

charset question (Windows-1251 and UTF-8 CJK)

[Gernot Hassenpflug]

Hi all,

(UltraSPARC Solaris 2.8, GNU Emacs 21.3. w/ gnus 5.10.6)

Several months ago I had trouble using Japanese in newgroups using
T-Gnus, and was recrommended to use gnus 5.10 instead. This solved my
problem. Now I still ahve problems with some charactersets:

 - Windows-1251 news articles or mail always appears as character
   codes, and I could not find any coding that seems to make it work.

I am confused because I have read that some mail readers (such as mew)
support this charset, yet I cannnot find out how to make it work. Does
gnus support this charset independently of emacs, and where can I look
for help? Google "windows-1251 gnus" and similar turned up nothing I
could use.

 - UTF-8 with CJK characters does not seem to work.

I read in google that UTF-8 is still only partially supported by
Emacs, so it seems that receiving mail and news in UTF-8 (CJK) is not
possible for now. Mozilla does fine on this front though.

Are these issues resolved (i.e. reduced to a settings problem) or are
they still current? (I need to find a work-around)

Many thanks,
     Gernot
-- 
G Hassenpflug RASC, Kyoto University

Re: charset question (Windows-1251 and UTF-8 CJK)

[Oliver Scholz]

Gernot Hassenpflug <gh@nospam.com> writes:

[...]
>  - Windows-1251 news articles or mail always appears as character
>    codes, and I could not find any coding that seems to make it work.
>
> I am confused because I have read that some mail readers (such as mew)
> support this charset, yet I cannnot find out how to make it work. Does
> gnus support this charset independently of emacs, and where can I look
> for help? Google "windows-1251 gnus" and similar turned up nothing I
> could use.

The problems you mention are related to Emacs rather than Gnus.

Emacs from the current CVS provides `windows-1251' by default.  For the
released Emacs 21.3 you can put something like this into your .emacs:

(codepage-setup 1251)

Then you get a coding-system named `cp1251'.  As I understand it, this
is just meant as another name for `windows-1251'.  I have no idea,
though, how complete it is.

>  - UTF-8 with CJK characters does not seem to work.
>
> I read in google that UTF-8 is still only partially supported by
> Emacs, so it seems that receiving mail and news in UTF-8 (CJK) is not
> possible for now. Mozilla does fine on this front though.
>
> Are these issues resolved (i.e. reduced to a settings problem) or are
> they still current? (I need to find a work-around)
[...]

Not being able to read any of the involved scripts, I have never paid
much attention to CJK issues.  I think that this is settled in the
current CVS.  You might want to confirm this before you check it out.
It might be---I honestly just don't know---that you can get CJK with
UTF-8 for Emacs 21.3 by installing mule-ucs.  I would not recommend it,
though.  I think this path down lies madness; at least that's my
impression from coding system quirks discussed in this newsgroup.

    Oliver
-- 
15 Vendémiaire an 213 de la Révolution
Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité!

Re: charset question (Windows-1251 and UTF-8 CJK)

[zrr]

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Oliver Scholz <alkibiades@gmx.de> writes:

> Gernot Hassenpflug <gh@nospam.com> writes:
>
> [...]

>
>>  - UTF-8 with CJK characters does not seem to work.
>>
>> I read in google that UTF-8 is still only partially supported by
>> Emacs, so it seems that receiving mail and news in UTF-8 (CJK) is not
>> possible for now. Mozilla does fine on this front though.
>>
>> Are these issues resolved (i.e. reduced to a settings problem) or are
>> they still current? (I need to find a work-around)
> [...]
>
> Not being able to read any of the involved scripts, I have never paid
> much attention to CJK issues.  I think that this is settled in the
> current CVS.  You might want to confirm this before you check it out.
  Yes, it is. There is a new utility called "utf-translate-cjk",
   this minor mode is turned on by default.
>
>     Oliver
> -- 
> 15 Vend¨¦miaire an 213 de la R¨¦volution
> Libert¨¦, Egalit¨¦, Fraternit¨¦!

Re: charset question (Windows-1251 and UTF-8 CJK)

[Gernot Hassenpflug]

>>>>> "zrr" == zrr  <beijing_2008_gold@yahoo.com.cn> writes:

    zrr> Oliver Scholz <alkibiades@gmx.de> writes:
    >> Gernot Hassenpflug <gh@nospam.com> writes:
    >> 
    >> [...]

    >> Not being able to read any of the involved scripts, I have
    >> never paid much attention to CJK issues.  I think that this is
    >> settled in the current CVS.  You might want to confirm this
    >> before you check it out.
    zrr>   Yes, it is. There is a new utility called
    zrr> "utf-translate-cjk", this minor mode is turned on by default.

Hello, I was away for a few days....  Thank you for the information,
Oliver and zrr, it looks like I will be doing a CVS checkout (in the
meantime I will try the method recommended by Oliver).

It will be good to have a completely working system again....
-- 
G Hassenpflug RASC, Kyoto University