[Info-vax] character set translation for language accents

[Richard B. Gilbert]

jcwoman1963 at hotmail.com wrote:
> I'm writing an interface between some software that runs on Windows
> and my software that runs on VMS, and having a problem with character
> set translation.  The Windows software is using a character set that
> enables accented characters.  I'm not sure exactly which one (utf-?)
> but the user interface for the software is in French.  When it sends
> text data through my interface, it's sending the accented characters.
> 
> When the data comes into my program on VMS, the accented characters
> have been lost/removed.  My software is running on VMS 8.3 on
> Integrity.  Is there some way to make it accept/handle the accented
> characters properly?

Perhaps you are having a problem with eight bit bytes?  AIRC the 
accented characters are all above 128 decimal.  If something clears the 
high order bit, your accented characters morph into something else.

I can remember the bad old days when mail/net-news did not support 
accented characters and Arne Vajhoej's surname came transliterated to 
Vajhxj.  Even now, the Thunderbird mail/news client can't cope with it, 
as you can see above.  It's changing an "o" with a slash to "oe"  I 
think I can actually receive it correctly  but not send it.