Re: [Groff] Bullets in manual pages and -K groff option

[Alexander E. Patrakov]

Bruno Haible wrote:

> Alexander E. Patrakov wrote:
>  
>
> > The answer "patch
> > glibc so that iconv transliterates the bullet to 'o'" is better (and in
> > fact this is doable), but I think that users of non-Glibc systems (or
> > old Glibc) will complain if this becomes the official answer.
> >    
>
> Why should they complain? They can use GNU libiconv. It transliterates the
> bullet to 'o', like you wish.
>  
The "iconv" program from libiconv transliterates the bullet to ".", 
which is also acceptable. Also, it transliterates quotes nicely. Thanks!

As for the "iconv" program from glibc, the situation is worse. I have 
prepared a patch against Glibc-2.3.6 (attached) that transliterates the 
offending characters produced by Groff into their ASCII equivalents if 
there is no any other suitable fallback. You can try it without 
rebuilding glibc by applying it to the installed copy of the 
"translit_neutral" file (in /usr/share/i18n/locales) and rebuilding all 
locales with localedef. The patch works in all locales except "C" (see 
below), but libiconv provides nicer quotes. Is this patch a right solution?

As for the "C" locale, the problem is that "iconv" from Glibc uses 
transliteration data from the current locale (e.g., in order to 
substitute ä with ae in German locales), and such locale-specific 
transliteration table is missing for the "C" locale (which IMHO is a 
Glibc bug). In contrast to that, libiconv bases its decisions only upon 
the source and destination character sets.

So, if you agree with all of the above, please help formulating a 
well-stated bug report against Glibc. Draft (very bad) is below.

Bug1.
Subject: Allow transliteration in the "C" locale.
Component: libc
Description:
The iconv function from libiconv performs some useful transliterations 
(e.g., replacing fancy quotes with their ASCII equivalents) in any 
locale. iconv from Glibc doesn't do that and relies solely upon the 
transliteration data from the current locale. Thus, there are no 
transliterations in the "C" locale, although they would be useful.

The iconv function from glibc should probably, instead, rely upon the 
union of locale-agnostic transliteration rules (like those from 
libiconv) and locale-specific overrides.

Bug2.
Subject: Transliterate quotes and bullets in all locales.
Component: localedata
Description:
The iconv function from libiconv performs some useful transliterations 
(e.g., replacing the quotes with their ASCII equivalents and the middle 
dot with ASCII dot) in all locales. Iconv implementation from Glibc 
doesn't always do this. Such deficiency is going to hurt future Groff 
users, as described in [link to this thread]. Attached is a patch that 
implements the needed transliteration rules. See also [Bug 1] for the 
related issue with the "C" locale.

--
Alexander E. Patrakov

Submitted By: Alexander E. Patrakov
Date: 2006-01-26
Initial Package Version: 2.3.6
Upstream Status: Discussing
Origin: Alexander E. Patrakov
Description: Transliterates some characters (e.g., ones created by groff -Tutf8)
into their ASCII approximations.

--- glibc-2.3.6/localedata/locales/translit_neutral     2006-01-26 
13:52:16.000000000 +0500
+++ glibc-2.3.6/localedata/locales/translit_neutral     2006-01-26 
11:15:17.000000000 +0500
@@ -26,6 +26,10 @@
 <U00AD> <U002D>
 % REGISTERED SIGN
 <U00AE> "<U0028><U0052><U0029>"
+% ACUTE ACCENT
+<U00B4> <U0027>
+% MIDDLE DOT
+<U00B7> <U002E>
 % CEDILLA
 <U00B8> <U002C>
 % RIGHT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
@@ -39,9 +43,9 @@
 % LATIN SMALL LETTER AE
 <U00E6> "<U0061><U0065>"
 % MODIFIER LETTER PRIME
-<U02B9> <U2032>;<U00B4>
+<U02B9> <U2032>;<U00B4>;<U0027>
 % MODIFIER LETTER DOUBLE PRIME
-<U02BA> <U2033>;"<U00B4><U00B4>"
+<U02BA> <U2033>;"<U00B4><U00B4>";"<U0027><U0027>"
 % MODIFIER LETTER TURNED COMMA
 <U02BB> <U2018>
 % MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE
@@ -55,7 +59,7 @@
 % MODIFIER LETTER MACRON
 <U02C9> <U00AF>
 % MODIFIER LETTER ACUTE ACCENT
-<U02CA> <U00B4>
+<U02CA> <U00B4>;<U0027>
 % MODIFIER LETTER GRAVE ACCENT
 <U02CB> <U0060>
 % MODIFIER LETTER LOW MACRON
@@ -101,11 +105,11 @@
 % NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE
 <U202F> <U00A0>;<U0020>
 % PRIME
-<U2032> <U00B4>
+<U2032> <U00B4>;<U0027>
 % DOUBLE PRIME
-<U2033> "<U2032><U2032>";"<U00B4><U00B4>"
+<U2033> "<U2032><U2032>";"<U00B4><U00B4>";"<U0027><U0027>"
 % TRIPLE PRIME
-<U2034> "<U2032><U2032><U2032>";"<U00B4><U00B4><U00B4>"
+<U2034> "<U2032><U2032><U2032>";"<U00B4><U00B4><U00B4>";"<U0027><U0027><U0027>"
 % REVERSED PRIME
 <U2035> <U0060>
 % REVERSED DOUBLE PRIME
@@ -155,7 +159,7 @@
 % ASTERISK OPERATOR
 <U2217> <U002A>
 % BULLET OPERATOR
-<U2219> <U2022>;<U00B7>
+<U2219> <U2022>;<U00B7>;<U002E>
 % DIVIDES
 <U2223> <U007C>
 % RATIO
@@ -171,13 +175,13 @@
 % MUCH GREATER-THAN
 <U226B> "<U003E><U003E>"
 % DOT OPERATOR
-<U22C5> <U00B7>
+<U22C5> <U00B7>;<U002E>
 % VERY MUCH LESS-THAN
 <U22D8> "<U003C><U003C><U003C>"
 % VERY MUCH GREATER-THAN
 <U22D9> "<U003E><U003E><U003E>"
 % MIDLINE HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS
-<U22EF> "<U00B7><U00B7><U00B7>"
+<U22EF> "<U00B7><U00B7><U00B7>";"<U002E><U002E><U002E>"
 % SYMBOL FOR NULL
 <U2400> "<U004E><U0055><U004C>"
 % SYMBOL FOR START OF HEADING