UTF8 Squeak (was Re: New Win32 VM [m17n testers needed])

subbukk subbukk at gmail.com
Thu Jun 7 13:56:14 UTC 2007


On Wednesday 06 June 2007 5:54 pm, Lex Spoon wrote:
> Yes, it would seem to simplify matters to use UTF-8 consistently for
> interfacing between the image and the VM.  Instead of the VM picking
> an encoding and telling the image which one it picked, it could go
> ahead and convert it to UTF-8.
>
> This applies not just to filenames, but every place where text is
> exchanged between the Smalltalk world and the VM, for example keyboard
> events and the clipboard.
This is not an easy job as the assumption of ASCII pervades Squeak. The only 
system that I am aware of that bit the bullet and went the whole hog is Plan 
9. The team got the kernel, library and utilities to work with UTF8 as basic 
character unit and wrote about experience:
   http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/utf.html

Is there a kernel image that just contains basic Squeak and VMMaker where one 
could try building a UTF-8 Squeak? Smaller the better.

Regards .. Subbu



More information about the Squeak-dev mailing list