On Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:42:25 -0500, Shmuel Metz (Seymour J.) wrote: > >>Were it my choice, I'd define a new code page with LF at 0x15 and NEL >>at 0x25 to validate the OEMVS311 translation table. > >That would cause problems for data where LF really means LF and CR >really means CR. Whether any such are still in use I don't know. > What's "really" LF? 0x0A? 0x25? 0x15? And in what data do each of these cause problems or not cause problems? Device drivers should be aware of the code page of the data, and take suitable action on embedded control codes.
I did some experimenting. On Ubuntu Linux: 501 $ uname -a Linux Linux-Mac 3.0.0-12-generic #20-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 7 14:50:42 UTC 2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux 502 $ 502 $ printf '\x0A' | iconv -f iso8859-1 -t ibm-1047 | od -x 0000000 0025 Which is obviously correct according to the definitions of the respective code pages. On z/OS: user@MVS.:128$ uname -a OS/390 MVS3 22.00 03 2066 user@3MVS.:129$ user@3MVS.:129$ printf '\x0A' | iconv -f iso8859-1 -t ibm-104> 0000000000 1500 This is equally obviously incorrect. This causes problems, reported in these fora, when programmers transfer text files in binary and rely on iconv(1) to perform the conversion. They get different results according to whether the conversion is performed on the Linux platform or on z/OS. I grant that the existing behavior on z/OS must be preserved for compatibility with existing code. But there's still a way out: Define a new code page (perhaps IBM-1047-X) with NEL at 0x25 and LF at 0x15; otherwise identical to IBM-1047. Replace mention of IBM-1047 with IBM-1047-X in documentation where appropriate (i.e. nearly everywhere). Register IBM-1047-X with ICANN (or suitable standards organization). Deprecate use of "IBM-1047" for reasons of ambiguity. Honesty is the best policy, gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
