[Info-vax] Character sets

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 9/5/2022 9:02 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2022-09-02, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>> On 9/2/2022 2:15 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>> On 2022-09-02, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
>>>> On 2022-09-02 15:16, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>>>> PS: I do now understand why this was done, but at the same time, for any
>>>>> VMS systems still doing this, it could easily give the impression to people
>>>>> not familiar with VMS of how once again "that VMS system is different from
>>>>> all the other systems we use."
>>>>
>>>> I can give you a program for Linux right now, that also expects
>>>> ISO-646-SE, in case you really insist on thinking that this has anything
>>>> to do with VMS.
>>>
>>> Any many Linux programmers would even know that such a thing exists,
>>> let alone have any need to use it ?
>>>
>>> You could also do a version of Emacs (for example) that outputs EBCDIC
>>> codes instead of one of the normal character sets when run on Linux.
>>> How useful would that be to normal Linux users ? :-)
>>>
>>> BTW, it's to do with VMS because VMS is the host OS for the applications
>>> that still use these 7-bit national character sets today.
>>
>> For *some* of them including the one that triggered this sub thread.
>>
>> The significance of the example running on VMS is probably small
>> when the discussion occurs in comp.os.vms.
>>
> 
> What other operating systems do you believe are currently hosting
> applications today that require 7-bit national character sets ?

There is no special relationship between those 7 bit national
variants and VMS.

So I would expect about the same percentage of applications
using those in the across all OS in the relevant type of applications.

The relevant type of application must be applications developed
before early 90's, developed in a non-English speaking but Latin
alphabet using country, developed on a non-EBCDIC platform.

VMS, AIX, HP-UX, SunOS, Irix, Ultrix, SCO Unix, original BSD etc..

Many of the Unix application would be migrated to Linux later, but
for cost saving reasons the migration was done 1:1. It happens.

> If you include Linux in that list, the next question I will ask is
> how does that tie up with the fact those character sets were considered
> obsolete before Linux even existed ?

You have already been told that such a Linux application exist.

Regarding why then maybe the application was originally developed
on some Unix and later migrated to Linux or maybe the developers just
continued with old habits..

Arne