PMP Mail Archive: RE: PMP> Management app expecting UTF-8 question

RE: PMP> Management app expecting UTF-8 question

JK Martin (jkm@underscore.com)
Mon, 28 Jul 1997 15:54:55 -0400 (EDT)

I don't quite see the problem, at least not the way you've stated it.

First, insofar as distinguishing between "older" and "newer" Printer MIB
implementations, one should be able to easily discern the version by
testing for the existence of one of the new objects, for example,
prtGeneralAdminName. If one of the new objects exists, then you should
assume the agent uses the "new" localization approach (whatever that may
be).

Now, as I understand it (and *please* correct me if I misstate here),
if a mgmt app gets a char with the 8th bit set--and if the agent is an
"old" implementation--then it's anyone's guess what the charset is.

On the other hand, if the agent is "new", then the text would be encoded
as UTF-8 (given Dave's UTF-8 proposal last week).

Perhaps I'm missing something here. If I am, then someone please point
it out, because maybe that's where I'm getting confused on this whole
localization issue.

...jay

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From: Bob Pentecost <bpenteco@boi.hp.com>
To: "'PWG-pmp'" <pmp@pwg.org>, "'Bill Wagner'" <bwagner@digprod.com>
Subject: RE: PMP> Management app expecting UTF-8 question
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 10:51:31 -0600
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Bill,

I think the problem gets a lot worse when UTF-8 becomes involved. With non-encoded strings, the worst that happens is an incorrect mapping of the characters that have the eighth bit set (assuming the 7 bit characters are ASCII). A management application that is expecting UTF-8 will take a character with the eighth bit set and then will consume the next two, three or four characters and display a single character. I would bet that the resulting string in the first case is a lot easier to understand than the resulting string in the second (UTF-8) case.

Bob

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From: Bill Wagner[SMTP:bwagner@digprod.com]
Sent: Friday, July 25, 1997 5:09 PM
To: 'PWG-pmp'
Subject: Re: PMP> Management app expecting UTF-8 question


Bob,

It would seem to me that, in the general case, a management
application would have no idea what character set the 'misbehaving'
printer agent supports, whether or not we decide to go with the UTF-8
proposal. In a specific case where the management agent 'knows' that a
particular printer will use PC-850 or whatever, it will know that in
either case.

Bill Wagner, Osicom/DPI

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: PMP> Management app expecting UTF-8 question
Author: Bob Pentecost <bpenteco@boi.hp.com> at Internet
Date: 7/25/97 3:57 PM

If we decide to go with the UTF-8 proposal, how will a management application
distinguish between a newer printer that is using UTF-8 and an older
"misbehaving" printer that is using non-ASCII (such as PC-850 or Roman-8 for two
examples)? The ASCII portion will be displayed correctly, but the characters
that have the eighth bit set will be misinterpreted.

Bob

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