Fonts/Unicode
=============

The new libXg distribution supports Unicode.  Sam and 9term built using
the new UTF libXg will allow one to enter and edit files containing
Unicode characters encoded using UTF-2 (UTF-FSS).  The software
takes care of all this encoding.  Sam may be used to enter the files
and when displayed in a suitable 9term window will be seen in all
their Unicode glory.  The font bundle is an integral part of this.
It contains bdf files of fonts which are used to span various ranges
of the Unicode space.

Most Unix program will still function oblivious to this change,
however some program will function less than perfectly.  Ls, for
example, will fail to line things up in columns if a multi-byte Rune
is present in a file name.  Anything which goes around stripping
high-bits from characters is likely to cause trouble.  Some seds
do this.  As do some mail programs (at various levels) and shells.
Your terminal setting should also be checked under 9term to ensure
they are not inhibiting transmission of the 8th bit.

I am currently using these headers on outgoing Unicode mail, however
I do not vouch for their correctness.  They do provide a bit of clue
as to what is going on 'though.

	Mime-Version: 1.0
	Content-Type: text/plain; charset=X-utf-2
	Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

I am working on a program to convert UTF-2 streams into reasonable
ascii aproximations where possible.

To use the full power of Unicode in your environment make sure
your fonts are set up correctly.  9term will accept a -p9font/-p9fn
arguments specifying a font file to use.  This font file specifies
which X fonts map to which ranges of the Unicode space.

PBM files
=========

The .pbm files in this directory are some snapshots of 9term in
action with various unicode characters on the screen.

Thanks
======

Thanks to Howard Trickey for first providing libXg to me and Bob
Flandrena for his feedback with the Unicode libXg and 9term.  Thanks
also to Gary Capell, Anders Lindström, Byron Rakitzis, Arnold Robbins,
and Chris Siebenmann for their testing, feedback, and suggestions.
Thanks to Rob Pike for 8½ and to John Bovey at the University of
Kent at Canterbury who wrote xvt which provided an initial framework
for 9term.

					Matty Farrow.
					matty@cs.su.oz.au
