fine, though. A somewhat difficult case are left-to-right scripts, such
as hebrew: B<rxvt-unicode> adopts the view that bidirectional algorithms
belong into the application, not the terminal emulator (too many things --
-such as cursor-movement -- break othwerwise).
+such as cursor-movement while editing -- break othwerwise), but that might
+change.
-Another design rationale was the use of multiple fonts to display
-characters: The idea of a single unicode font which many other programs
-force onto it's users never made sense to me: You should be able to choose
-any font for any script.
+If you are looking for a terminal that supports more exotic scripts, let
+me recommend C<mlterm>, which is a very userfriendly, lean and clean
+terminal emulator. In fact, the reason rxvt-unicode was born was solely
+because the author couldn't get C<mlterm> to use one font for latin1 and
+another for japanese.
+
+Therefore another design rationale was the use of multiple fonts to
+display characters: The idea of a single unicode font which many other
+programs force onto it's users never made sense to me: You should be able
+to choose any font for any script freely.
Apart from that, rxvt-unicode is also much better internationalised than
it's predecessor, supports things such as XFT and ISO 14755 that are handy
are not passed onto the shell; option B<-sk>. B<False>: do not scroll to
bottom when a non-special key is pressed; option B<+sk>.
-=item B<smallfont_key:> I<keysym>
-
-If enabled, use B<@@HOTKEY@@->I<keysym> to toggle to a smaller font
-[default B<@@HOTKEY@@-@@SMALLFONT@@>]
-
-=item B<bigfont_key:> I<keysym>
-
-If enabled, use B<@@HOTKEY@@->I<keysym> to toggle to a bigger font
-[default B<@@HOTKEY@@-@@BIGFONT@@>]
-
=item B<saveLines:> I<number>
Save I<number> lines in the scrollback buffer [default 64]. This
=head1 CHANGING FONTS
-You can change fonts on-the-fly, which is to say cycle through the
-default font and others of various sizes, by using B<Shift-KP_Add> and
-B<Shift-KP_Subtract>. Or, alternatively (if enabled) with
-B<@@HOTKEY@@-@@BIGFONT@@> and B<@@HOTKEY@@-@@SMALLFONT@@>, where the
-actual key can be selected using resources
-B<smallfont_key>/B<bigfont_key>.
+Changing fonts (or font sizes, respectively) via the keypad is not yet
+supported in rxvt-unicode. Bug me if you need this.
+
+You can, however, switch fonts at runtime using escape sequences (and
+therefore using the menubar), e.g.:
+
+ printf '\e]701;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
+
+rxvt-unicode will automatically re-apply these fonts to the output so far.
=head1 ISO 14755 SUPPORT
-Partial ISO 14755-support is implemented. that means that pressing
+ISO 14755 is a standard for entering and viewing unicode characters
+and character codes using the keyboard. It consists of 4 parts. The
+first part is available rxvt-unicode has been compiled with
+C<--enable-frills>, the rest is available when rxvt-unicode was compiled
+with C<--enable-iso14755>.
+
+=over 4
+
+=item 5.1: Basic method
+
+This allows you to enter unicode characters using their hexcode.
+
+Start by pressing and holding both C<Control> and C<Shift>, then enter
+hex-digits (between one and six). Releasing C<Control> and C<Shift> will
+commit the character as if it were typed directly. While holding down
+C<Control> and C<Shift> you can also enter multiple characters by pressing
+C<Space>, which will commit the current character and lets you start a new
+one.
+
+As an example of use, imagine a business card with a japanese e-mail
+address, which you cannot type. Fortunately, the card has the e-mail
+address printed as hexcodes, e.g. C<671d 65e5>. You can enter this easily
+by pressing C<Control> and C<Shift>, followed by C<6-7-1-D-SPACE-6-5-E-5>,
+followed by releasing the modifier keys.
-Section 5.1: Control and Shift together enters unicode input
-mode. Entering hex digits composes a Unicode character, pressing space or
-releasing the modifiers commits the keycode and every other key cancels
-the current input character.
+=item 5.2: Keyboard symbols entry method
-Section 5.2: Pressing and immediately releasing Control and Shift together
-enters keycap entry mode for the next key: pressing a function key (tab,
-return etc..) will enter the unicode character corresponding to the given
-key.
+This mode lets you input characters representing the keycap symbols of
+your keyboard, if representable in the current locale encoding.
+
+Start by pressing C<Control> and C<Shift> together, then releasing
+them. The next special key (cursor keys, home etc.) you enter will not
+invoke it's usual function but instead will insert the corresponding
+keycap symbol. The symbol will only be entered when the key has been
+released, otherwise pressing e.g. C<Shift> would enter the symbol for
+C<ISO Level 2 Switch>, although your intention might have beenm to enter a
+reverse tab (Shift-Tab).
+
+=item 5.3: Screen-selection entry method
+
+While this is implemented already (it's basically the selection
+mechanism), it could be extended by displaying a unicode character map.
+
+=item 5.4: Feedback method for identifying displayed characters for later input
+
+This method lets you display the unicode character code associated with
+characters already displayed.
+
+You enter this mode by holding down C<Control> and C<Shift> together, then
+pressing and holding the left mouse button and moving around. The unicode
+hex code(s) (it might be a combining character) of the character under the
+pointer is displayed until you release C<Control> and C<Shift>.
+
+=back
+
+With respect to conformance, rxvt-unicode is supposed to be compliant to
+both scenario A and B of ISO 14755, including part 5.2.
=head1 LOGIN STAMP
version 2.14 and later, the escape sequence C<ESC[8n> sets the window
title to the version number.
+=item Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
+
+=item Unicode does not seem to work?
+
+If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
+getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output is
+subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
+
+Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same C<LC_CTYPE> setting as the
+programs. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the C<C> locale, while the
+login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes the locale to
+sth. else, e.h. C<en_GB.UTF-8>. Needless to say, this is not going to work.
+
+The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely run
+into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your .profile.
+
+ printf '\e]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE"
+
+If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a C<LC_CTYPE> specification not
+supported on your systems. Some systems have a C<locale> comamnd which
+displays this. If it displays sth. like:
+
+ locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ...
+
+Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system.
+
+If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then
+you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
+support locales :(
+
=item Why do the characters look ugly?
=item How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
the same character at the same time, but no interface for this has been
designed yet).
+=item How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
+
+=item Is there an option to switch encodings?
+
+Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
+specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know about
+UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
+
+The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for selecting
+the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating this to all
+applications so everybody agrees on character properties such as width and
+code number. This mechanism is the I<locale>.
+
+Rxvt-unicode uses the C<LC_CTYPE> locale category to select encoding. All
+programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
+interpretation of characters.
+
+Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
+is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
+
+On most systems, the content of the C<LC_CTYPE> environment variable
+contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
+locale. Common names for locales are C<en_US.UTF-8>, C<de_DE.ISO-8859-15>,
+C<ja_JP.EUC-JP>, i.e. C<language_country.encoding>, but other forms
+(i.e. C<de> or C<german>) are also common.
+
+Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for
+the encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings,
+i.e. C<de_DE.UTF-8> and C<ja_JP.UTF-8> are the same for rxvt-unicode.
+
+If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
+rxvt-unicode with the correct C<LC_CTYPE> category.
+
+=item Can I switch locales at runtime?
+
+Yes, using an escape sequence. Try sth. like this, which sets
+rxvt-unicode's idea of C<LC_CTYPE>.
+
+ printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
+
+See also the previous question.
+
+Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in one
+locale (e.g. C<de_DE.UTF-8>) but some programs don't support UTF-8. For
+example, I use this script to start C<xjdic>, which first switches to a
+locale supported by xjdic and back later:
+
+ printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
+ xjdic -js
+ printf '\e]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
+
+=item Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
+
+Yes, using an escape sequence. Try sth. like this, which has the same
+effect as using the C<-fn> switch, and takes effect immediately:
+
+ printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
+
+This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
+japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
+japanese fonts would only be in your way.
+
+You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
+
=item Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing
=item Project Coordinator
-@@RXVTMAINT@@ L<@@RXVT_MAINTEMAIL@@>
+@@RXVT_MAINT@@ L<@@RXVT_MAINTEMAIL@@>
=item Web page maintainter
-@@RXVTWEBMAINT@@ L<@@RXVT_WEBMAINTEMAIL@@>
+@@RXVT_WEBMAINT@@ L<@@RXVT_WEBMAINTEMAIL@@>
L<@@RXVT_WEBPAGE@@>
projects / dana / urxvt.git / commitdiff