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+category:
+    - computer
+title: Finally, UTF-8 locale (and about Compose)
+date: 2005-09-23T01:16:00
+---
+
+I have finally bitten the bullet and switched my locale to
+`cs\_CZ.UTF-8`_. When still writing this blog in gvim (`the end of my
+relation with vim`_ and here_), I begun to write it in `UTF-8`_ and it
+was such a relief. Suddenly, I didn‘t have to use ugly kludges like \`\`
+or --. Of course, the problem is that there are so many supplementary
+characters which could be suddenly used, that no keyboard layout is able
+to handle all of them (I think) and some other solution has to be found.
+Vim has digraphs_ which are really quite useful, but as everything
+else in vim, there is no connection to the outside world. Switch to
+Kate/KWrite was very pleasant issue, but obviously there are no digraphs
+native to them. My first reaction was to use `HTML entities`_ and
+translate them to the pure UTF-8 version with `my special Python
+script`_. However, I felt very strongly that this is not the way.
+
+`I asked on cz.comp.linux`_ about experience of people with inserting
+these non-keyboardish characters and the answer was “Use Compose key”. I
+begun to search on Google for the answer how to make it work and finally
+I found that actually the best source of information about the
+combinations of keys for Compose (aside from `the article on
+Wikipedia`_) is `directly in my computer`_. The only problem was that
+with ISO 8859-2 based locale only very small part of keys actually
+worked. This was the last straw which broke my back of resistance
+towards switching whole computer to UTF-8. The problem is (as always)
+`Midnight Commander`_, which Debian version doesn’t work with UTF-8 at
+all (especially, panel frames are affected by this). So, again, Googling
+and Googling until I've found `this thread on some discussion board`_,
+which contains `a link to patched version of MC`_ (requires also
+`non-standard version of slang`_), which somehow works in my console.
+However, MC is not a critical for me anymore, now when Krusader_ is
+finally `stable enough and featurefull enough to compete with MC`_.
+
+One more problem—when I have switched to UTF-8 many filenames with
+accented characters were suddenly broken. I thought that Linux
+filesystems store all metada in UTF-8 already. Oh well, they probably
+don’t. So I had to run output of ``locate`` through ``cstocs`` and then
+to find out with ``diff`` what all has been changed.
+
+Looking at all this issue with at least some distance, it seems to that
+actually Compose key combines best from all the options—it works as well
+as vim’s digraphs, but it is X11-wide, which is cool (and yes, of
+course, it is much better than M$-Windows’s ``Alt+<number>``).
+
+.. _`cs\_CZ.UTF-8`:
+    http://www.cestina.cz/pocestovani/unix/
+.. _`the end of my relation with vim`:
+    http://groups.google.com/group/linux.debian.maint.kde/browse_frm/thread/17b2a7cdaf669266/
+.. _here:
+    http://groups.google.com/group/comp.editors/browse_frm/thread/efa5636fb753e83d/
+.. _`UTF-8`:
+    http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/%7Emgk25/unicode.html
+.. _digraphs:
+    http://www.vim.org/htmldoc/digraph.html
+.. _`HTML entities`:
+    http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/entities/
+.. _`my special Python script`:
+    http://www.ceplovi.cz/matej/progs/scripts/deent
+.. _`I asked on cz.comp.linux`:
+    http://groups.google.com/group/cz.comp.linux/browse_frm/thread/f86c0425956b296c/
+.. _`the article on Wikipedia`:
+    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose
+.. _`directly in my computer`:
+    file:///usr/X11R6/lib/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose
+.. _`Midnight Commander`:
+    http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=242194
+.. _`this thread on some discussion board`:
+    http://forum.ubuntu.ru/index.php?topic=83.msg529#msg529
+.. _`a link to patched version of MC`:
+    http://yuozhny.ru/deb/mc/mc_4.6.0-1_i386.deb
+.. _`non-standard version of slang`:
+    http://yuozhny.ru/deb/mc/mc_4.6.0-1_i386.deb
+.. _Krusader:
+    http://www.krusader.org
+.. _`stable enough and featurefull enough to compete with MC`:
+    http://linuxtoday.com/developer/2005060900426NWCYSW