Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!mcsun!news.funet.fi!hydra!klaava!wirzeniu
From: wirzeniu@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Lars Wirzenius)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: ALED goes to the wastebasket here in Iceland
Message-ID: <1991Jun15.220717.20911@klaava.Helsinki.FI>
Date: 15 Jun 91 22:07:17 GMT
References: <3245@krafla.rhi.hi.is> <1991Jun15.124052.17827@cbfsb.att.com>
Organization: University of Helsinki
Lines: 26

In article <1991Jun15.124052.17827@cbfsb.att.com> mbb@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (martin.brilliant) writes:
>We have a large world here, and Iceland is a small country.  If we all
>knew how Icelandic characters are normally entered in an Icelandic
>editor, more editors would provide for the entry of Icelandic characters.

I don't know how Icelandic characters are entered, but if they're
entered the same way as Finnish characters, there are keys dedicated to
them on the keyboard, just as for the letters A through Z, e.g. 
o-with-dots is by the L key, and a-with-a-circle-on-top is by the P key. 

The problem is that these keys generate (or their scan codes are turned
into) characters with the 8th bit turned on.  If I understand correctly,
ALed (and a number of other programs) either mask the 8th bit away or
won't take such characters as input at all. 

There is no need for an editor to offer a special way of entering these
characters. The normal way is quite adequate.

>By the way, this seeming universal expression of counterproductive
>disgust from Iceland gives me a poor impression of Icelandic culture.

By the way, the seemingly endless stream of 7-bit-only software that
refuses to accept Finnish text as input gives me a poor impression of
the US culture. Or rather, it would, if I didn't know better.
-- 
Lars Wirzenius     wirzeniu@cc.helsinki.fi