[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #47571] Problem entering non-ASCII-character (umlaut) in command line

[Markus Mützel]

Follow-up Comment #37, bug #47571 (project octave):

This seems to be a problem with GNU Readline's handling of 8-bit characters.
With the default settings, "Readline will convert characters with the eighth
bit set to an ASCII key sequence by stripping the eighth bit and prefixing an
ESC character, converting them to a meta-prefixed key sequence." [1]

If I use the following setting in my .inputrc, entering umlaut characters on
the command line works (with a delay of one keystroke):

set input-meta on
set output-meta on
set convert-meta off


We could (over-)write .inputrc with the installer. Or we could change the
defaults of the Readline we compile with MXE Octave with the attached patch.

However, the doc for "input-meta" continues to read:
"The default value is ‘off’, but Readline will set it to ‘on’ if the
locale contains eight-bit characters."
And accordingly for the other two settings.

That logic doesn't seem to be present in Readline 6.2 that we use. So maybe we
should better upgrade to Readline 7.0 (and also set an UTF-8 locale in case we
don't do so yet).

[1]:
https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Readline-Init-File-Syntax.html

(file #44713)
    _______________________________________________________

Additional Item Attachment:

File name: bug47571_readline_meta.patch   Size:1 KB


    _______________________________________________________

Reply to this item at:

  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?47571>

_______________________________________________
  Message sent via Savannah
  https://savannah.gnu.org/