Hello, contrary to the message in NEWS:

[2018-07-29]
Version 0.8.11
[...]
- Documentation:

   * Change en/README_encoding to use utf-8 as all the other languages,
instead
     of iso-8859-1

this problem is not solved.
Within aptitude in tab "Help -> User's Manual" the manual is not(!)
shown in utf-8, but (most likely) iso-8859-1.
The culprit part seems to be the file src/ui.cc in function

do_help_readme()

in lines 1184 and especially 1190, where "ISO_8859-1" should by replaced
by "UTF-8".

I'm a big fan of aptitude, so all the best!
Thanks.

Hi,

I find the same problem quite annoying, too.

Very simple patch as below solved this problem for the most annoying part of
this bug.

But as I see the source, there are few more places to be fixed and also change
encoding of text data.

help-zh_TW.txt is not in UTF-8 (help-zh_CN.txt is in UTF-8)
help-de.txt is latin1

I don't see any one working on this on salsa.
https://salsa.debian.org/apt-team/aptitude/-/merge_requests


Let me make a fork and send MR via salsa when I find a time.

---

Description: README is UTF-8
 aptitude (0.8.13-7.1) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * Non-maintainer upload.
   * UTF-8
Author: Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>

--- aptitude-0.8.13.orig/src/ui.cc
+++ aptitude-0.8.13/src/ui.cc
@@ -1181,13 +1181,13 @@ static void do_help_readme()
   // Look up the translation of README.
   // TRANSLATORS: You can translate README and set the filename here.
   std::string readme_file = ssprintf(HELPDIR "/%s", P_("Localized
file|README"));
-  const char *encoding    = P_("Encoding of README|ISO_8859-1");
+  const char *encoding    = P_("Encoding of README|UTF-8");

   // Deal with missing localized docs.
   if(access(readme_file.c_str(), R_OK)!=0)
     {
       readme_file = HELPDIR "/README";
-      encoding    = "ISO_8859-1";
+      encoding    = "UTF-8";
     }

   setup_fileview(readme_file,

Hi,

I find the same problem quite annoying, too.

Very simple patch as below solved this problem for the most annoying part of
this bug.

But as I see the source, there are few more places to be fixed and also change
encoding of text data.

help-zh_TW.txt is not in UTF-8 (help-zh_CN.txt is in UTF-8)
help-de.txt is latin1

I don't see any one working on this on salsa.
https://salsa.debian.org/apt-team/aptitude/-/merge_requests


Let me make a fork and send MR via salsa when I find a time.

---

Description: README is UTF-8
 aptitude (0.8.13-7.1) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * Non-maintainer upload.
   * UTF-8
Author: Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>

--- aptitude-0.8.13.orig/src/ui.cc
+++ aptitude-0.8.13/src/ui.cc
@@ -1181,13 +1181,13 @@ static void do_help_readme()
   // Look up the translation of README.
   // TRANSLATORS: You can translate README and set the filename here.
   std::string readme_file = ssprintf(HELPDIR "/%s", P_("Localized
file|README"));
-  const char *encoding    = P_("Encoding of README|ISO_8859-1");
+  const char *encoding    = P_("Encoding of README|UTF-8");

   // Deal with missing localized docs.
   if(access(readme_file.c_str(), R_OK)!=0)
     {
       readme_file = HELPDIR "/README";
-      encoding    = "ISO_8859-1";
+      encoding    = "UTF-8";
     }

   setup_fileview(readme_file,

As I checked:
non-UTF8

xx help-zh_TW.txt xx
xx mine-help-fi.txt xx
xx mine-help-fr.txt xx

Hello,

thanks!
[aptitude 0.8.13-8]

And here are files converted by "recode" to UTF-8:
  o mine-help-fi.txt mine-help-fr.txt

I did the same for
  o help-zh_TW.txt

but am not able to tell, if this is correct or meaningful
text.

Thanks again, and all the best,
  Ruediger Oberhage

Hello,

thanks!
[aptitude 0.8.13-8]

And here are files converted by "recode" to UTF-8:
  o mine-help-fi.txt mine-help-fr.txt

I did the same for
  o help-zh_TW.txt

but am not able to tell, if this is correct or meaningful
text.

Thanks again, and all the best,
  Ruediger Oberhage

Hello,

thanks!
[aptitude 0.8.13-8]

And here are files converted by "recode" to UTF-8:
  o mine-help-fi.txt mine-help-fr.txt

I did the same for
  o help-zh_TW.txt

but am not able to tell, if this is correct or meaningful
text.

Thanks again, and all the best,
  Ruediger Oberhage

Hi,

As I checked more, this is a fixed bug in master branch.
0cb1886f ("ui: Default README encoding to UTF-8", 2020-08-03)

Yes, 6 yeas ago.  As I checked master-branch more, I see many more old i18n
fixes around this fix.:

e6c87719 ("help-zh_TW.txt: Convert to UTF-8", 2020-08-03)
d6545a5b ("mine: Convert fi and fr help files to UTF-8", 2020-08-03)
0cb1886f ("ui: Default README encoding to UTF-8", 2020-08-03)
220290f2 ("Convert remaining ISO-Latin files to UTF-8", 2020-08-18)

(This may not be the complete list of desirable commits to be cherry-picked.)

I don't know why but Debian upstream tagged content is not on master-branch.  I
suppose the current Debian maintainer wanted to use binary file removed contents
for upstream tarball.  Since then, Debian package kept using old upstream
content and addressing only issues such as compiler version etc. ignoring
changes made in master branch.

I don't know the rationale behind this odd packaging practice but it is high
time to at least important bugs fixed by cherry-picking master changes.

Osamu

Hi,

As I checked more, this is a fixed bug in master branch.
0cb1886f ("ui: Default README encoding to UTF-8", 2020-08-03)

Yes, 6 yeas ago.  As I checked master-branch more, I see many more old i18n
fixes around this fix.:

e6c87719 ("help-zh_TW.txt: Convert to UTF-8", 2020-08-03)
d6545a5b ("mine: Convert fi and fr help files to UTF-8", 2020-08-03)
0cb1886f ("ui: Default README encoding to UTF-8", 2020-08-03)
220290f2 ("Convert remaining ISO-Latin files to UTF-8", 2020-08-18)

(This may not be the complete list of desirable commits to be cherry-picked.)

I don't know why but Debian upstream tagged content is not on master-branch.  I
suppose the current Debian maintainer wanted to use binary file removed contents
for upstream tarball.  Since then, Debian package kept using old upstream
content and addressing only issues such as compiler version etc. ignoring
changes made in master branch.

I don't know the rationale behind this odd packaging practice but it is high
time to at least important bugs fixed by cherry-picking master changes.

Osamu

control: tags -1 patch
control: severity -1 important
thanks

Hi,

220290f2 ("Convert remaining ISO-Latin files to UTF-8", 2020-08-18)

This doesn't apply cleanly without trivial adjustment.  Skip this since it's not
as important patch.

Considering this touches only help screen code and fixes its display from
unusable to  usable, it is worth fixing not-only in sid but also for stable.

See my MR including 3 patches from master:
https://salsa.debian.org/apt-team/aptitude/-/merge_requests/27

Broken English UI for graphic characters is really something worth fixing even
for stable.

If there is no short term plan to use master branch based package, please
consider this for sid too.

Osamu

control: tags -1 patch
control: severity -1 important
thanks

Hi,

220290f2 ("Convert remaining ISO-Latin files to UTF-8", 2020-08-18)

This doesn't apply cleanly without trivial adjustment.  Skip this since it's not
as important patch.

Considering this touches only help screen code and fixes its display from
unusable to  usable, it is worth fixing not-only in sid but also for stable.

See my MR including 3 patches from master:
https://salsa.debian.org/apt-team/aptitude/-/merge_requests/27

Broken English UI for graphic characters is really something worth fixing even
for stable.

If there is no short term plan to use master branch based package, please
consider this for sid too.

Osamu