.. role:: code(strong) .. role:: file(literal) ====================== README file for Recode ====================== .. raw:: html .. contents:: .. sectnum:: Introduction ============ What is Recode? --------------- Here is version 3.6 for the Recode program and library. Hereafter, Recode means the whole package, :code:`recode` means the executable program. Glance through this :file:`README` file before starting configuration. Make sure you read files :file:`ABOUT-NLS` and :file:`INSTALL` if you are not familiar with them already. The Recode library converts files between character sets and usages. It recognises or produces over 200 different character sets (or about 300 if combined with an :code:`iconv` library) and transliterates files between almost any pair. When exact transliteration are not possible, it gets rid of offending characters or falls back on approximations. The :code:`recode` program is a handy front-end to the library. The Recode program and library have been written by François Pinard, yet it significantly reuses tabular works from Keld Simonsen. It is an evolving package, and specifications might change in future releases. On various Unix systems, Recode is usually compiled from sources, see the `Installation`_ section below. On Linux, it often comes bundled. Recode had been ported to other popular systems. See both `contrib/README`__ and the `Non-Unix ports`_ section below, to find some more information about these. __ contrib.html Reports and collaboration ------------------------- Send bug reports to mailto:recode-bugs@iro.umontreal.ca' . A bug report is an adequate description of the problem: your input, what you expected, what you got, and why this is wrong. Diffs are welcome, but they only describe a solution, from which the problem might be uneasy to infer. If needed, submit actual data files with your report. Small data files are preferred. Big files may sometimes be necessary, but do not send them on the mailing list; rather take special arrangement with the maintainer. Your feedback will help us to make a better and more portable package. Consider documentation errors as bugs, and report them as such. If you develop anything pertaining to Recode or have suggestions, let us know and share your findings by writing at mailto:recode-forum@iro.umontreal.ca . You may also choose to directly write at mailto:pinard@iro.umontreal.ca, yet be warned that such correspondence is often visible for a while through the Recode Web site. If you feel like receiving releases and pretest announcements for the Recode package, send a message to mailto:majordomo@iro.umontreal.ca having, in its body, a line saying:: subscribe recode-announce If you rather want to participate actively in discussions, pretesting and development for Recode, do just as above, but this time, use:: subscribe recode-forum Visit http://recode%(bpi)s/ for releases or pretests, and related files. In particular, button ``Browse`` gives access to a weekly mirror of the current unpackaged work files, while button ``Folders`` gives access to saved or pending correspondence. Please *do not* widely redistribute releases having a letter after the version numbers, as these are meant for pretesting only, and might not be stable enough for other usages. Development plan ---------------- My plan has long been to end the 3.x series of this package, rather aiming 4.0 as a major internal rewrite. As there is still a long way before 4.0 gets ready, and *especially* because some of my good collaborators insisted that I do so, there will be a Recode 3.7. That release is meant to provide a selection of user-contributed patches. For prototyping what Recode will become and experimenting new concepts more easily, I created a subsidiary and standalone project named Recodec, meant to receive the best part of my development efforts in this particular area. Once I'll be happy with the prototype, the plan is to rewrite it from Python to C, somehow. Visit the Web pages for this `Recodec project`__ for more information and details. For now at least, new features go to Recodec only. __ http://recodec.progiciels-bpi.ca Notes for version 3.7-beta2 --------------------------- Here are a few notes related to the beta2 pre-test release for the incoming Recode 3.7. I publish it to ease later exchanges of patches with testers. + The name has been changed from Free recode to Recode -- as "Free" was a four letter word to some people :-). :code:`recode` (no capital) still names the executable program specifically, or the distribution archive itself. + Recode does not itself include :code:`libiconv` anymore. However, it uses an external :code:`iconv` library if one is available at installation time, like :code:`libiconv` or the one provided within GNU :code:`libc`. The ``-x:`` option to the program, or a new flag to the library :code:`recode_new_outer` function, inhibits the initialisation and usage of :code:`iconv`. + The bug about loosing a few characters, here and there, when recoding big files in :code:`iconv` context, seems to have been corrected. A patch for this problem has been floating around for years, but it was not solving all cases. + Recode installation now uses Python. In particular, it creates file :file:`build/src/iconvdecl.h` from local ``iconv -l`` output. Recode testing through ``make check`` also needs what people :code:`python-devel`, providing C header files for Python and :code:`distutils`. The :file:`Makemore` file has been merged within regular Makefiles and is not distributed separately anymore. + It is likely that new bugs have been introduced through the above changes. In particular, not everything is cosy on the side of release engineering. A few files are either spuriously remade, or remade late. I'm a bit surprised by the difficulty to get this right. + ``make check`` accepts a ``LIMIT=`` option, for limiting tests to one or a few cases. See :file:`tests/Makefile` for more information. + PO files have been updated from the Translation Project. Notes for version 3.7-beta1 --------------------------- The beta 1 pre-test release for the incoming Recode 3.7 has been made available for those needing it right away. While it solves some serious bugs and portability problems, others are meant to be addressed only in later pre-tests. In particular, none of charset or surface issues, user requests, and various suggestions appear in this pre-test, and will not either in later pretests, until all real show-stoppers are solved first. So this is in no way a candidate for a Recode 3.7 release. The test suite is worth more comments: + The suite is very partial, and may not be thought as a validation suite. Before it could be used to ascertain confidence, it would need much more tests than it has already. + Testing is notably more speedy than it used to be. For example, the previous :code:`bigauto` test, which was not run by default because it ran for too long, is now executed within the standard test suite, once in non-strict mode, and a second time in strict mode. + It does not use Autotest anymore, but rather a home grown test driver much inspired from the Codespeak project. The link between the test and the Recode library is established through a Pyrex interface, so you need to have :code:`python` and :code:`python-devel` installed first. + Beware that the Pyrex interface to the Recode library is only meant for testing. for now at least. While you may play with it, it would not be wise relying on it, as the specifications might change at any time. Installation ============ Prerequisites ------------- Simple installation of Recode requires the usual tools and facilities as those needed for most GNU packages. If not already bundled with your system, you also need to pre-install Python, version 2.2 or better. You may get it from: http://www.python.org It is also convenient to have some :code:`iconv` library already present on your system, this much extends Recode capabilities, especially in the area of Asiatic character sets. GNU :code:`libc`, as found on Linux systems and a few others, already has such an :code:`iconv` library. Otherwise, you might consider pre-installing the portable :code:`libiconv`, written by Bruno Haible. You may get it from: http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/ Getting your own copy --------------------- The canonical distribution point for this version is: http://recode%(bpi)s/archives/recode.tar.gz GNU mirrors usually hold a copy of non-pretest releases, the canonical distribution point for the last such release is: ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/recode/recode-3.6.tar.gz Some older distributions, and maybe beta pre-releases for testers, *might* be available in this directory: http://recode%(bpi)s/archives/ There is a reachable copy of my own sandbox repository for Recode. I experiment with it, and branches may be reset at any time. The server might not even be up (then just tell me!). To get your own copy, try these commands:: git clone git://recode%(bpi)s/recode cd recode sh after-patch.sh (or ``python after-patch.py`` if you miss either :code:`sh` or GNU :code:`touch`). Once you have an unpacked distribution, see files: =================== ======================================================= File name Description =================== ======================================================= :file:`ABOUT-NLS` how to customise this program to your language :file:`COPYING` copying conditions for the program :file:`COPYING.LIB` copying conditions for the library :file:`INSTALL` compilation and installation instructions :file:`NEWS` major changes in the current release :file:`THANKS` partial list of contributors =================== ======================================================= Configure options ----------------- Besides those configure options documented in files :file:`INSTALL` and :file:`ABOUT-NLS`, a few extra options may be accepted after ``./configure``: + Options ``--disable-shared`` or ``--disable-static`` to inhibit the building of shared libraries or static libraries; the default is to always build static libraries, and to attempt building shared libraries if there is some known recipe for this. + Option ``--with-gnu-ld`` to force the assumption that the C compiler uses GNU ld. + Option ``--with-dmalloc`` to trigger a debugging feature for looking at memory management problems, it pre-requires Gray Watson's package, which is available as ftp://ftp.letters.com/src/dmalloc/dmalloc.tar.gz . Maintenance tools ----------------- For simple modifications to Recode, you should not need special tools beyond those usual for installing GNU packages. However, if you modify any :file:`.l` source file, Python and Flex are both needed for remaking :file:`merged.c`. For more comprehensive modifications, you might need more tools. If not done already, make sure you have a copy of the packages listed in the following table. You may also choose to establish a link in your build :file:`doc/` directory, as explained within :file:`doc/Makemore`. ================ ========== ========== ============= Package name Current Minimum Install after ================ ========== ========== ============= :code:`autoconf` 2.61 2.12 :code:`m4` :code:`automake` 1.10 1.9 :code:`Perl` :code:`Flex` 2.5.33 2.5.4a :code:`gettext` 0.16 0.16 :code:`Help2man` 1.36 1.020 :code:`Perl` :code:`libtool` 1.5.24 1.3.4 :code:`m4` 1.4.10 1.4n :code:`Make` 3.81 :code:`Perl` 5.8.8 5.005.03 :code:`Python` 2.5.1 2.2 :code:`tar` 1.17 1.12 :code:`wget` 1.10.2 ================ ========== ========== ============= The *current* version numbers just happen to be those used for development, it is often likely that older versions would work just as well. The *minimum* version numbers were once acceptable, they might not be anymore, this has not been verified; any updating information is welcome! Installation hints ------------------ Here are a few hints which might help installing Recode on some systems. Many may be applied by temporary presetting environment variables while calling ``./configure``. File :file:`INSTALL` explains this. + Compilation time Some C compilers, like Apollo's, have a hard time compiling :file:`merged.c`. If this is your case, avoid compiler optimisation. From within the Bourne shell, you may use:: CFLAGS= ./configure But if you want to give a real hard time to your C optimiser on :file:`merged.c`, to get code that runs only a bit faster, merely try:: CPPFLAGS=-DINLINE_HARDER ./configure + Smallish systems For 80286 based systems (do some still exist?!), it has been reported that some compilers generate wrong code while optimising for *small* models. So, from within the Bourne shell, do:: CFLAGS=-Ml LDFLAGS=-Ml ./configure to force large memory model. For 80286 Xenix compiler, the last time it was tried a while ago, one ought to use:: CFLAGS='-Ml -F2000' LDFLAGS=-Ml ./configure Other systems have poor :code:`pipe`/:code:`popen` support or thrash heavily when processes fork. In this case, just before doing ``make``, edit :file:`config.h` and ensure :code:`HAVE_PIPE` is *not* defined. External pointers ================= Documentation ------------- + IETF references + Character Mnemonics & Character Sets + ftp://nic.ddn.mil/rfc/rfc1345.txt Keld Simonsen , 1992-06. + UTF-7 - A Mail-Safe Transformation Format of Unicode + ftp://nic.ddn.mil/rfc/rfc1642.txt David Goldsmith and Mark Davis , 1994-07. + UTF-8, a transformation format of Unicode and ISO 10646 + ftp://nic.ddn.mil/rfc/rfc2044.txt François Yergeau , 1997-10. + Various references + Unicode charset mappings + ftp://ftp.unicode.org:/Public/MAPPINGS/ The Unicode consortium makes available plenty of charset mappings for converting "legacy" charsets to Unicode. + Normalisation et internationalisation: Inventaire et prospectives des normes clefs pour le traitement informatique du français. (392p.) This is a report, written in French, discussing charset issues and many other topics as well. Laurent Bourbeau and François Pinard , 1995-10. + ftp://ftp.iro.umontreal.ca/pub/contrib/pinard/accents/oqil-tome1.ps.gz + http://www.ceveil.qc.ca/Normes + Recode specific + ETL presentation In 1999, the organisers of the `m17n99 conference`__ in Tsukuba, Japan, were kind enough to invite me. This has been for me a fabulous trip and experience, and I met many extraordinary people in there. At the conference, I presented the Translation Project, and Recode. The Recode `presentation slides`__ are available. __ http://www.m17n.org/conference/m17n99_all_but_registration/welcome.en.html __ m17n99.html Programs -------- + :code:`libiconv` This comprehensive charset converter library revolves around Unicode, and support Asian encodings among many others. Even Recode uses it! + http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/ Bruno Haible + :code:`tcs` Here is the main recoding tool from the Plan9 project. + ftp://research.att.com/dist/tcs.shar.Z + :code:`yuedit` This GUI editor handles many encodings, among which UTF-8. It also installs uniconv, a recoding program, and uniprint, a printing tool. + ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/editors/X/yudit-1.2.tar.gz Gaspar Sinai , 1999-01. + :code:`ucs-fonts` These 6x13 fonts, covering Unicode characters besides the Asian sets, merely replace the Linux fixed 6x13 font. Works nicely with yudit. + http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/download/ucs-fonts.tar.gz Markus Kuhn , 1998-11. + :code:`MtRecode` This charset converter is oriented towards SGML text manipulation. It may be freely downloaded for non-commercial, non-military use from: + http://www.lpl.univ-aix.fr/projects/multext/MtRecode/ Pointer given by Jean Véronis , 1996-06. + :code:`sp` This quite nice SGML structure analyser contains internal C++ modules for handling many charsets. + ftp://ftp.jclark.com/pub/sp/sp-1.3.tar.gz James Clark + :code:`b2c` This program is able to generate interpreted character dumps, but properly embedded within complete C header files. + http://research.de.uu.net:8080/~gnu/b2c/b2c-2.1.tar.gz Jörg Heitkötter , 1997-11. + :code:`PyRecode` This wrapper provides Recode functionality to Python programs. + http://www.suxers.de/PyRecode.tgz Andreas Jung Also see: + http://www.vex.net/parnassus/apyllo.py?find=recode + http://www.suxers.de/python/pyrecode.htm Non-Unix ports -------------- Please mailto:recode-bugs@iro.umontreal.ca if you are aware of various ports to non-Unix systems not listed here, or for corrections. Please provide the goal system, a complete and stable URL, the maintainer name and address, the Recode version used as a base, and your comments. + MSDOS (DJGPP) Juan Manuel Guerrero maintains this port, dated 2001-03 and based on Recode 3.5. The following archives hold binaries, docs and sources respectively. + ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/rcode35b.zip + ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/rcode35d.zip + ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/rcode35s.zip See `contrib/DJGPP/README`__ in the Recode distribution for more information about compiling this port. __ /DJGPP.html + MSDOS (Gnuish) Darrel Hankerson maintains this port, dated 1994-11 and based on Recode 3.4. You get many GNU tools, not only Recode. The GNUish project is described in :file:`gnuish_t.htm`. + http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net/ + http://www.leo.org/pub/comp/platforms/pc/gnuish (Germany) + ftp://ftp.simtel.net/simtelnet/gnu + ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/platforms/pc/gnuish + OS/2 (using emx/gcc) Maintainer unknown (maybe Kai Uwe Rommel ), dated 1994-11 and based on Recode 3.4. + http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/convert/gnurcode.zip