Re: [Nmh-workers] nmh architecture discussion: format engine character set

[Ken Hornstein]

>I think that you're asking "how do I display red when I don't have
>red" and the answer is, you don't.  To be really retro about it, if
>I'm reading email on a VT-100 and someone includes a UTF-8 arabic
>character in the email address, I'm out of luck; it can't be displayed.

Ahhh ... here's the crux of the issue: it's not just display!

Since with EAI email addresses can now contain UTF-8, we have to
generate a reply draft when you're replying to one of those messages.
Exactly what character set should the email address be in when it appears
in the reply draft?  If the answer is 'fail', then that's fine.  But I
just want to come to agreement that is the answer and we're all on board
for that.

>Are we making a bigger issue out of this than necessary?  There are
>very few actual VT-100s left in the work outside of the Computer History
>Museum.  Most people use devices that can support Unicode.  This is like
>our old discussion about supporting non-Posix systems.  Who gets left in
>the dust if we go Unicode?  Is it a significant portion of the user base?

You can check the archives: we some few users who, for various
reasons, are not running in an UTF-8 locale (AFAICT all of their
terminals have the technical capability to do so).  If those people
want to speak up, please do so.

Like I said, if the answer is for EAI email addresses nmh only works
if you're running in a UTF-8 locale, then that's an easy answer.  I just
want everyone to understand what that means.

--Ken