Re: MML charset tag regression

[Kenichi Handa <handa@m17n.org>]

In article <E19IVZG-0005PS-La@fencepost.gnu.org>, Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:
> Can you write a self-contained statement addressed to the GTK people
> requesting them to provide better COMPOUND_TEXT handling, and
> explaining more specifically what we need and why?  We need that,
> I think, to make the case to them.

How about this?  Please note that I don't know if this is the
responsibility of GTK, nor of the underling GDK, nor of each
client program.

Could you send it (after polishing English) to a proper
person/group?


This is a strong request.

When a selection owner reacts upon the request of type
COMPOUND_TEXT and the selection data (text) contains a
character that is not encodable by COMPOUND_TEXT, the owner
should not replace such a character with '?' nor strip off
the charater silently.  Instead the owner should send back
the XSelectionEvent with the `property' member None.  That
way, a requester can request the different type, e.g.,
UTF8_STRING, TEXT.  Otherwise, the requester has no way to
know that the received data is the correct one or not.


This is a less strong request.

When a selection owner have to convert Unicode characters to
some other legacy charsets (ISO-8859-X, JISX0208, GB2312,
etc) upon a request of type COMPOUND_TEXT and there are
multiple choices (e.g. some HAN character to JISX0208 or to
GB2312), it is better that the owner chooses a charset
supported by the current locale with the highest priority.

---
Ken'ichi HANDA
handa@m17n.org