Code Conversion and the iconv Utility

Digital UNIX Version 4.0 extends the base tty terminal driver subsystem to include additional BSD line disciplines and STREAMS tty modules for processing data in all languages. The line discipline or STREAMS modules sed to process Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, for example, provides the following support:

• Japanese Kana-Kanji conversion input method

• Character-based line processing in cooked mode

• Input line history and editing (BSD line discipline only)

• Input line history and editing

• Software on-demand-loading for user-defined characters

• Code conversion between terminal codeset and application codeset

Digital UNIX Version 4.0 supports the iconv utility, which converts text from one locale's codeset to another, thereby assisting programmers in the writing of international applications.

Code conversion is also implemented in the terminal driver and printing subsystem to allow the use of terminals and printers with different codesets. Additionally, code conversion is implemented in mail utilities for mail interchange with systems using different codesets (see the man command for reference page displays) and in the X Window Toolkit for text input, drawing, and interclient communication. For more information on the iconv utility, see iconv_intro(5).

For information on all the languages supported by the international terminal subsystem, see the guide, Writing Software for the International Market.

The following sections briefly discuss additional internationalization functionality.