UTF-8 basic handling

UTF-8 basic handling

[François-Xavier Coudert]

Hi all,

As I understand from previous messages on zsh lists, there currently is a
lack of UTF-8 support in zsh since nobody has enough time to code thinks.
As a user, I think there is one part of such support that becomes very
sharply needed: line editing.

As all major linux distributions are getting UTF-8 based, one of the most
annoying things in zsh is the following: I want to type a command, and I
unfortunately press on one of the accented letter keys of my keyboard
(that's a common mistake on any non-US keyboard). I get:

~ $ pdféps

(instead of pdf2ps for an example on french keyboard). I realize my
mistake, and use backspace 3 times, so I get on my screen:

~ $ pfd

Then I do enter "2ps", and the shell says:

~ $ pdf2ps
zsh: command not found: pdf\M-C2ps

Of course, I understand that I should have pressed backspace 4 times,
since é is two bytes large. But please consider that what I am describing
is now the common situation in most linux distros. Complete Unicode
support may be difficult and a long term goal, but line-editing now
really sucks.

Thanks for your attention,
François-Xavier

PS: please Cc all answers to me as I'm no suscriber of the list.

-- 
François-Xavier Coudert
École normale supérieure
45, rue d'Ulm - 75005 Paris
<Francois-Xavier.Coudert@ens.fr>

Re: UTF-8 basic handling

[DervishD]

    Bonjour, François :)

 * François-Xavier Coudert <Francois-Xavier.Coudert@ens.fr> dixit:
> As I understand from previous messages on zsh lists, there
> currently is a lack of UTF-8 support in zsh since nobody has enough
> time to code thinks. As a user, I think there is one part of such
> support that becomes very sharply needed: line editing.

    A friend of mine is already reading code and trying to make a
contribution.

    Anyway I think that utf-8 support in Zsh would be a VERY good
idea. I don't know, if my friend David gets into the business of
adding utf-8 support I may lend him a hand. Or something O:)
 
    Raúl Núñez de Arenas Coronado

-- 
Linux Registered User 88736
http://www.dervishd.net & http://www.pleyades.net/

Re: UTF-8 basic handling

[David Gómez]

Hi François ;),

> As I understand from previous messages on zsh lists, there currently is a
> lack of UTF-8 support in zsh since nobody has enough time to code thinks.

I would like to do something to help adding UTF-8 support to zsh, but as
you said, time is short :(. Anyway i followed Oliver Kiddle advices and
started reading the source from some builtins (print), that would be a good
start point. I know what you want is UTF-8 support in zle, but i don't
know zsh well enough to start hacking in zle code ;).

> As all major linux distributions are getting UTF-8 based, one of the most

I see, most of them select a UTF-8 locale as a default, and you get
ugly problems like this one...

cheers,

-- 
David Gómez                                      Jabber ID: davidge@jabber.org