[Info-vax] DCL's flaws (both scripting and UI)

[Craig A. Berry]

On 1/25/15 11:15 AM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> the C iconv and related support is dated at best.

Too true. You can install Perl and use the piconv packaged with it. Most
likely there is a Python equivalent as well. But neither is "integrated"
to use your favorite word, and calling the iconv function in the CRTL
still limits you to the system-supplied conversions.

$ piconv
piconv.com [-f from_encoding] [-t to_encoding]
       [-p|--perlqq|--htmlcref|--xmlcref] [-C N|-c] [-D] [-S scheme]
       [-s string|file...]
piconv.com -l
piconv.com -r encoding_alias
piconv.com -h
Common options:
   -l,--list
      lists all available encodings
   -r,--resolve encoding_alias
     resolve encoding to its (Encode) canonical name
   -f,--from from_encoding
      when omitted, the current locale will be used
   -t,--to to_encoding
      when omitted, the current locale will be used
   -s,--string string
      "string" will be the input instead of STDIN or files
The following are mainly of interest to Encode hackers:
   -C N | -c           check the validity of the input
   -D,--debug          show debug information
   -S,--scheme scheme  use the scheme for conversion
Those are handy when you can only see ASCII characters:
   -p,--perlqq         transliterate characters missing in encoding to 
\x{HHHH}
                       where HHHH is the hexadecimal Unicode code point
   --htmlcref          transliterate characters missing in encoding to 
&#NNN;
                       where NNN is the decimal Unicode code point
   --xmlcref           transliterate characters missing in encoding to 
&#xHHHH;
                       where HHHH is the hexadecimal Unicode code point

$ piconv -l
7bit-jis
AdobeStandardEncoding
AdobeSymbol
AdobeZdingbat
ascii
ascii-ctrl
big5-eten
big5-hkscs
cp1006
cp1026
cp1047
cp1250
cp1251
cp1252
cp1253
cp1254
cp1255
cp1256
cp1257
cp1258
cp37
cp424
cp437
cp500
cp737
cp775
cp850
cp852
cp855
cp856
cp857
cp858
cp860
cp861
cp862
cp863
cp864
cp865
cp866
cp869
cp874
cp875
cp932
cp936
cp949
cp950
dingbats
euc-cn
euc-jp
euc-kr
gb12345-raw
gb2312-raw
gsm0338
hp-roman8
hz
iso-2022-jp
iso-2022-jp-1
iso-2022-kr
iso-8859-1
iso-8859-10
iso-8859-11
iso-8859-13
iso-8859-14
iso-8859-15
iso-8859-16
iso-8859-2
iso-8859-3
iso-8859-4
iso-8859-5
iso-8859-6
iso-8859-7
iso-8859-8
iso-8859-9
iso-ir-165
jis0201-raw
jis0208-raw
jis0212-raw
johab
koi8-f
koi8-r
koi8-u
ksc5601-raw
MacArabic
MacCentralEurRoman
MacChineseSimp
MacChineseTrad
MacCroatian
MacCyrillic
MacDingbats
MacFarsi
MacGreek
MacHebrew
MacIcelandic
MacJapanese
MacKorean
MacRoman
MacRomanian
MacRumanian
MacSami
MacSymbol
MacThai
MacTurkish
MacUkrainian
MIME-B
MIME-Header
MIME-Header-ISO_2022_JP
MIME-Q
nextstep
null
posix-bc
shiftjis
symbol
UCS-2BE
UCS-2LE
UTF-16
UTF-16BE
UTF-16LE
UTF-32
UTF-32BE
UTF-32LE
UTF-7
utf-8-strict
utf8
viscii