TID: FMail-W32 2.2.0.0   
   TZUTC: 0100   
   CHRS: UTF-8 4   
   PID: GED+W32 1.1.5-b20110320   
   MSGID: 2:280/5555 6404929a   
   REPLY: 329.fidoutf8@1:103/705 2868eb5d   
   Hello Rob,   
      
   On Saturday March 04 2023 13:11, you wrote to me:   
      
    >> So let me get this straight:   
    >>   
    >> 1) If the message that is responded to, is encoded in CP437,   
    >> Synchronet answers in CP437. Yes?   
      
    RS> No. The message response itself determines the encoding and only CP437   
    RS> terminals can faithfully author CP437 encoded messages. If a UTF-8   
    RS> terminal user responds to a CP437 encoded message (with non-ASCII   
    RS> chars), the original message text is converted to UTF-8 before it is   
    RS> quoted and the response will be UTF-8. Unless there are no non-ASCII   
    RS> chars in the response, in which case the response charset witll just   
    RS> be ASCII.   
      
   I see... So it is the terminal - or whatever functions as its equivalent - and   
   only the terminal that determines the encoding of the message at hand.   
      
    >> So what happens if the response does not fit into CP437?   
      
    RS> I think this question is making false assumptions.   
      
   It is making assumtions, but they are not false I would say. Read on.. I will   
   come back to that further down.   
      
    >> What happens if the original message is encoded in a one byte   
    >> encoding other than CP437?   
      
    RS> The only encodings Synchronet supports for message text are ASCII,   
    RS> CP437, and UTF-8.   
      
   Hmmm... That leaves out a big part of Fidonet. These days the majority, maybe   
   the vast majority is writen in a language that uses the Cyrillic alfabet and   
   the encoding is CP866.   
      
    >> 2) If the message that is responded to is encoded in UTF-8,   
    >> Synchronet answers in UTF-8 if the terminal that is used supports   
    >> UTF-8. Yes?   
      
    RS> Yes.   
      
   OK, so far so good...   
      
    >> So what happens in that case if the terminal does not support   
    >> UTF-8?   
      
    RS> The message text would be converted to CP437 before being quoted and   
    RS> the response would be in CP437.   
      
   And now I come back to my previous question: what happens if it does not fit   
   into CP437? That can easely happen. A Euro sign '€' can be composed in UTF-8   
   but it  does not fit into CP437.   
      
    >> My software translates the CP437 encoded degree sign into UTF-8 as   
    >> you can see.   
      
    RS> Yup, most software does the same, when appropriate.   
      
   My Golded does, but the reverse is a bit problematic.   
      
      
   Cheers, Michiel   
      
   --- GoldED+/W32-MSVC 1.1.5-b20170303   
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