MsgEd TE fully supports FSC 0054. The character set translation files are named `READMAPS.DAT' and `WRITMAPS.DAT'. You can enable character set translation support in MsgEd TE by simply copying these files into the directory from which MsgEd TE is started. (On Unix, you have to move and rename them to `~/.msged.readmaps' and `~/msged.writmaps' instead. If the files can be found and are valid, you will be notified that the FSC 0054 character set translation engine has been activated when MsgEd TE starts.
It is important that you use the correct `READMAPS.DAT' and `WRITMAPS.DAT' files, because these files are tailored to the charcter set that you are using locally: The OS/2, DOS and Windows versions of MsgEd TE ship with a pair of `READMAPS.DAT' and `WRITMAPS.DAT' that are tailored for the IBMPC codepage 437 (international). In order to find out if you are using codepage 437, you can use the `CHCP' command with no arguments. If you are not using codepage 437, you should write a batch file that first calls `CHCP 437' before calling MsgEd TE. If you are using codepage 850, you might alternatively also delete `READMAPS.DAT' and `WRITMAPS.DAT' and then rename the files `READMAPS.850' and `WRITMAPS.850' to `READMAPS.DAT' and `WRITMAPS.DAT'. These files are tailored for codepage 850.
The Linux version ships with a pair of `READMAPS.DAT' and `WRITMAPS.DAT' that are tailored to computers that use the ISO 8859 character set (Latin-1). (Some Linux boxes use IBMPC, codepage 437, or even 850, instead, but I strongly suggest that you change your system configuration to use ISO 8859 in that case!).
If you have the source code distribution of MsgEd TE, the `bin' subdiretory contains `readmaps.dat' and `writmaps.dat' files for all supported code pages.
The following table lists all level 2 character sets that MsgEd TE understands (meaning all character sets that are defined in the `READMAPS.DAT' and `WRITMAPS.DAT' files):
@CHRS-Kludge: | Conventional Name: | Used by these computers:
--------------+----------------------+---------------------------
LATIN-1 | ISO 8859-1 | Unix, Amiga, Windows GUI
MAC | MAC | Macintosh computers
IBMPC | IBM PC, Codepage 437 | DOS, OS/2, Windows console
CP850 | IBM PC, Codepage 850 | National German editions of
| | DOS, OS/2 and Windows.
These are the character sets that are used in the Western World. I would like to also support the different Kyrillic and Slavic character sets, but do not have any information on those. If you can supply me with more information, please contact me!
Once FSC 0054 is activated, MsgEd TE will be able to correctly display all mails that have been created with one of the characters sets listed above, as long as they contain the proper charset kludge line. (Unfortunately, quite some still don't - do tell their authors to correct their setup!). Mails that you write yourself may contain any special characters, but MsgEd TE will convert them into a 7 bit ASCII character set when you save them.
If you want to retain special characters in your mail by adding a charset
kludge, you have to do two things. First, you have to define which character
set to use for saving your mails (it must not necessarily be the character
set that you are using locally, but you should not use
CP850). See section 6.2.29 OutputCharset, for
information on how to do this. In most cases, you will simply want to add the
following line to your configuration file:
OutputCharset IBMPC
This will even work if you have a Linux box. Then, you have to tell MsgEd TE in which areas it is allowable to send mails with special characters and charset kludges. MsgEd TE will only write special characters into areas that have the `8' flag set. If you are importing your message area configuration from a tosser configuration file, you can simply put the following line to the beginning of your configuration file:
AreaFileFlags 8
(If you already have an AreaFileFlags statement, just add the `8'
character to its parameters). See section 6.2.5 Areafile and AreaFileFlags, for more information.
This will allow MsgEd TE to use special characters in conjunction with a charset kludge in all message areas imported from a tosser configuration file.
If you only want to enable special characters for a few areas, you have to define these areas manually, giving each of them the `8' flag individually. The same applies if you have to define your areas manually for other reaseons. See section 6.5.1 Manual Area Definition, for more information on this.
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