Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!sdrc!thor!scjones
From: scjones@thor.UUCP (Larry Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: X on non-ASCII machines
Message-ID: <188@thor.UUCP>
Date: 26 Sep 90 17:58:33 GMT
Organization: SDRC, Cincinnati
Lines: 31

We're currently porting the X client libraries to an IBM mainframe
which speaks EBCDIC instead of ASCII (or ISO Latin-1 if you prefer).
Xlib and Xt are basically working, but we're having some difficulty
trying to decide how to handle the character set difference.  Since
we just ignored the issue to start with, a typical client ends up
with its resource names in EBCDIC, which match the resources being
read from its app defs file, but not the (ASCII) server resources.
Also, window properties like the application name are in EBCDIC
where the server expects ASCII.  Similarly for things like color
and font names.

If the conversion is the application programmer's responsibility
as implied by the Xlib documentation that requires ISO Latin-1
for things like font and color names, then what's Xt and a widget
writer to do?  Must Xt convert all the resource files it reads
into Latin-1?  Must a widget writer specify all resource names
in Latin-1?  All of the predefined resources are simply printable
character strings like "font" which is a whole lot more readable
and easier to use than "\146\157\156\164" which is the only way
to guarantee a Latin-1 encoding.  Since these strings are used to
initialize data structures, they have to be constants so you can't
even use something like LocalToLatin1("font").

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
----
Larry Jones                         UUCP: uunet!sdrc!thor!scjones
SDRC                                      scjones@thor.UUCP
2000 Eastman Dr.                    BIX:  ltl
Milford, OH  45150-2789             AT&T: (513) 576-2070
Even though we're both talking english, we're not speaking the same language.
-- Calvin