Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!sunic!isgate!krafla!einari
From: einari@rhi.hi.is (Einar Indridason)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: ALED goes to the wastebasket here in Iceland
Message-ID: <3258@krafla.rhi.hi.is>
Date: 17 Jun 91 02:23:22 GMT
References: <3245@krafla.rhi.hi.is> <4089@sixhub.UUCP>
Reply-To: einari@rhi.hi.is (Einar Indridason)
Organization: University of Iceland (RHI)
Lines: 74

In article <4089@sixhub.UUCP> davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes:
>  I thought it left all 8 bits alone in the file. You may have to use
>sequences to enter them, but the problem could be that whatever maps
>your keyboard is not mapping for the editor. Not having the icelandic
>character set handy I didn't check. I'm familiar with icelandic
>characters, some post to usenet ;-)


I did not try if it left all 8 bits alone in a saved file or wrote them
back out.
What I did was:
	I entered a short sentence that contains all our icelandic
	characters :  (without using the alt-numeric-keypad-trick)
		"kaemi n'y \"oxi h'er ykist thj'ofum v'il og 'adrepa"

	What I got was:
		"kmi n xi hr ykist jfum vl og drepa"

Which is clearly not good enough.

I next tried to enter some of our icelandic characters with the
ALT-numberic-keypad-trick.  That worked.  But what pissed me off was the
fact that icelandic characters are not *directly* supported!!
I had to work a trick to get them in.  I would have had to press four keys
to get our icelandic characters, instead of only two.  (These two have the
advantage of being on the main keyboard section, so one does *not* have to
move the fingers too much.)

We frisk@rhi.hi.is, (Fridrik Skulason), have talked about it and frisk 
will upload to simtel a copy of an icelandic keyboard driver.  This 
keyboard driver is not only a keyboard driver, but it contains the 
character matrixes for our (beloved :-) icelandic characters.  (Requires VGA)
He told me that he would upload it as soon as he had the documentation
ready.  I suggested that he should show the keyboard layout as well.

I don't know how that ALED reads the keyboard, but it seem to me to be
something like this:
	int	16h
	cmp	al,7fh
	ja	error		; Nobody uses the 8th bit, so why should I???
	....
This is clearly the Wrong way of reading the keyboard.

We frisk could tell you some horror stories about that drasted 8th bit.
Patching programs, fixing and building new internal tables, etc.....


Note that this is not a flame to the moderator.  Bill has done a great job
and I hope he will keep it up.


Instead, my original posting was ment to bring this to the attention of
those programmers that *mask* the 8th bit.  (Shame on you.)


And one horror story at the end:
	Imagine what will happen when Unicode emerges as a standard in
	computers communications?  (I am not the right person to talk about
	unicode, since I don't know much about it as of yet.)
	Unicode is a 16 bit character set.  Imagine then, you not only are
	not allowed to mask the 8th bit, but you also must leave the
	9th-16th bit alone.



In the hope that I have managed to convert someone,

EinarI

--
Internet:    einari@rhi.hi.is        |   "Just give me my command line and drag
UUCP:    ..!mcsun!isgate!rhi!einari  |   the GUIs to the waste basket!!!!"

Surgeon Generals warning:  Masking the 8th bit can seriously damage your brain!!