Subj : 40 Cups of Coffee
To   : Nick Boel
From : August Abolins
Date : Sun Apr 06 2025 11:35:00

Hello Nick!

** On Sunday 06.04.25 - 07:16, Nick Boel wrote to me:

 NB> By the way (and veering way off here), I just tried OpenXP
 NB> again this past week. I first installed on Windows, and
 NB> for the life of me I couldn't get it to display anything
 NB> in UTF-8. I tried setting the Windows command prompt to CP
 NB> 65001, etc. So I became a little irritated (moreso with
 NB> Windows), and installed it on one of my Linux VMs where I
 NB> know UTF-8 works properly. Still no dice for most
 NB> situations..

I don't there is UTF-8 support on the incoming.  OpenXP is a  
terminal/console program afterall.


 NB> Come to find out the UTF-8 that /does/ work, has to do
 NB> with MIME decoding only. Dovenet's 'Tech Talk' area pulls
 NB> directly from the TLDR website which includes html and
 NB> MIME encoded text that OpenXP handles very nicely.

I just tried the dove-tech-talk echo, and the TLDR material  
with OpenXP looks messy with unresolved conversions.  So, not  
sure what you consider is "handles very nicely".


 NB> Not only does it remove html tags, it decodes MIME and
 NB> displays everything in readable text even with the UTF-8
 NB> glyphs that come with it. Unfortunately, that's where UTF-
 NB> 8 stops, though..

Oh.. so yes.. the plaintext is what OpenXP does well.


 NB> I found that extremely odd, that so much work was put into
 NB> that (MIME decoding and preserving UTF-8), but a simple
 NB> message with UTF-8 characters can't be displayed properly.
 NB> Eh well, maybe some day. Definitely on the right track,
 NB> though! ;)

I doubt that OpenXP can ever support UTF-8 like in gui-type  
windows.  The limitation is the charset/font support in Windows  
DOS terminal.  I currently use Lucinda TT console.  It has  
limits to what foreign chars it supports. German, French,  
Italian, Spanish chars are supported.


 NB> Other than that, once you get used to where everything is
 NB> and how it all works.. it's actually pretty cool. Mind
 NB> you, I didn't mess with any of the Fido stuff, I only used
 NB> NNTP with it, since it was the easiest way to test without
 NB> creating a new link or point and messing with my other
 NB> configurations.

AFIK, OpenXP maintains UTF-8 chars on the outbound in NNTP-type  
areas.  Not sure if it renders as expected on the inbound.


 NB> Is this a project you're at all involved with?

Not exactly.  I'm primarily a user, sold on the great  
performance and features of the system.


 NB> Or are you just their super-user/beta-tester,

I *did* kinda kickstart a push to have some problems corrected.


 NB> ...or just a fan?

See above!  :D




-- 
  ../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.64
 * Origin:  (2:221/1.58)

.