On Saturday 15 November 2003 9:39 pm, Lex Spoon wrote:
> What encodings would be available?  Wouldn't every image have to know
> about every low-level encoding that is possible?
>
> It would simplify things in the image if the VM always expected things
> in a single encoding.  Further, I don't see the advantage of having a
> converter written within Squeak.  There are already C libraries around
> for conversions between Unicode and most other encodings, and we can dig
> some up and link them in.

This is what Ian (with some help from me) did in the Unix VM:

- link with the iconv library, so we don't have to hold translation tables.

- the -encoding switch or its corresponding environment variable specifies 
what encoding Squeak strings are considered to be in.

- the -pathenc switch or its corresponding environment variable specifies what 
encoding external pathnames are considered to be in.

- the -textenc switch or its corresponding environment variable specifies what 
encoding unidentified clipboard contents are considered to be in. Of course, 
this meta information is generally available during clipboard transactions.

- squeak also checks the environment for LC_ALL and LC_CTYPE. If either of 
these variables is set then support for international keyboards (including 
dead keys for diacritical marks) is enabled.

-- 
Ned Konz
http://bike-nomad.com
GPG key ID: BEEA7EFE