From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Ben Schmidt Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:06:57 +0000 Subject: Re: [mlmmj] [patch] man page fixes Message-Id: <4F1CC0C1.2070402@yahoo.com.au> List-Id: References: <4F1BD224.40908@goirand.fr> In-Reply-To: <4F1BD224.40908@goirand.fr> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable To: mlmmj@mlmmj.org >> All man pages should be using UTF-8 in Debian, and I believe that you >> should have your mac to use UTF-8 if possible. If not, do we care? Is >> MLMMJ used in the Apple platform? >> >> Also, what type of encoding do you use? Why is your encoding more valid >> than UTF-8? What if the user is let's say Chinese, Russian, or who knows? >> >> It really doesn't make sense to use any type of specific encoding, >> everyone should be using UTF-8, IMO. > > I agree, it makes sense for everyone to use UTF-8 these days. However, > I'd prefer not to expect or assume that. I didn't mention my system > because I think it is particularly important, but simply to point out > that there is at least one system out there that this change will break. > There may be others. I would like to find a way to make this change that > won't break any system. Does anyone know how to do this, or another > project that has solved this problem whose work we can copy or imitate? I think I've solved this. It seems Debian is non-standard in requiring UTF-8 man pages, as Groff does not support UTF-8 input: http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/manual/html_node/Input-Encodings.html However, Groff supports character escapes which can be used compatibly: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/gutsy/man7/groff_char.7.html http://manpages.debian.net/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=3Dgroff_char&apropos=3D0&s= ektion=3D0&manpath=DEbian+6.0+squeeze&format=3Dhtml&locale=3Den So I'll replace =F8 with \[/o] and everything should be good, though a little ugly. Cheers, Ben.