Re: stty utf8

Jamie Lokier
2004-02-16T22:04:01Z

Jamie Lokier wrote:
> Why not create "stty utf8" so that non-UTF-8 terminals and UTF-8
> terminals alike can work with a Linux convention that all programs
> enter and display UTF-8? It would simplify a lot of things.

I little thought and an experiment later, and I discovered:

When you edit a line with the kernel's terminal line editor, when you
press the Delete key, it writes backspace-space-backspace and removes
one byte from the input. That fails to do the right thing on UTF-8
terminals.

For example, in a UTF-8 xterm or Gnome terminal, or even on the Linux
console after running "unicode_start", run the command "cat" by
itself, then type "ééé", then hit DEL twice - it will show one
accented letter(*). Press enter, and cat will echo the line
containing _two_ letters.

There is no fancy environment setting which corrects this problem.
The kernel needs to know it's dealing with a UTF-8 terminal for basic
line editing to work.

(*) The text in quotes is three E WITH ACUTE letters, in case that
doesn't show properly in your mailer.

-- Jamie