Re: Kernel utf-8 handling

Ken Moffat
2007-06-01T22:17:37Z

On Fri, Jun 01, 2007 at 04:20:58PM +0200, DervishD wrote:
> Hi all :)
>
> I have a do-it-yourself Linux box, and I'm planning to move to UTF8
> (currently I'm using es_ES locale, with latin1 encoding). One of my main
> concerns (apart from programs with little or no utf8 support, which I
> will have to suffer) is kernel handling, because I only use the console;
> I only use X and a terminal emulator if I can't avoid it.
>
[...]
>
> Will the console work as it works now if I can live with latin1
> accented characters only? Is there any terminal emulator *for the
> console*, not for X, that handles utf8? Will I be sentenced to X to be
> able to use my computer with utf8?
>
Sure, the console will work (don't know about a console terminal
emulator). I'm not very keen on compose keys - I find dead
diacriticals (like in X) are usually easier to enter, and I've got
all the dead latin1 accents working on my uk keymap. Other
diacriticals for normally-latin1 keymaps are a different matter
(e.g. caron, ogonek, dot above) - they could be mapped for a
specific letter on a specific key (e.g. AltGr z for ż ; z with dot
above) but the diacritical modifiers can't be mapped for non latin1,
at least in kbd-1.12. You can also alter the keymap to allow you do
ISO 14755 input (ctrl+shift+hex_digits) - useful for occasional
characters, if they are in your font and you can remember their
value.

Ken
--
das eine Mal als Tragödie, das andere Mal als Farce