Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!yfcw14 From: yfcw14@castle.ed.ac.uk (K P Donnelly) Newsgroups: comp.std.internat Subject: Re: Code Page Conversion Message-ID: <5681@castle.ed.ac.uk> Date: 14 Aug 90 08:48:52 GMT References: <1991@enea.se> Organization: Forestry Commission N. Research Station Lines: 23 I find that I can send 8-bit mail messages over the UK JANET network to and from VAX/VMS machines without trouble. However, it seems that if mail goes anywhere near a Unix machine it gets the eighth bit stripped. The trouble seems to be the file transfer utility hhcp. I find that I can work happily in 8-bits on Edinburgh University's central Unix machine, provided I set stty -odd or stty -even. The new versions of microEMACS, MS-KERMIT and TeX all support 8-bit text. However, if I try to transfer an 8-bit text file into the Unix machine using hhcp it gets the eighth bit stripped; and if I try to transfer an 8-bit text file out from the Unix machine, hhcp treats it as binary file and the file gets horribly garbled. An Irish Gaelic conferencing system which I have accessed is hosted on a VAX/VMS machine and uses ISO 8859-1 as standard. However, when I access it, via IPSS and the Irish commercial packet switch network, EIRPAC, the eighth bit gets stripped somewhere along the way. Would anyone like to summarize experiences elsewhere with 8-bit mail. Are any networks already happily using ISO 8859-1 for mail? What are the main bottlenecks at present to 8-bit work? Kevin Donnelly