CharsetAlias charsetInMail charsetAsKnownToMsged
CharsetAlias IBMPC CP850
As already noted in the previous section, a lot of mails in Fidonet contain
charset kludges that do not adhere to the current FTSC standard for 8-bit
character transport, FSP1013. Using the CharsetAlias keyword,
you can tell MsgEd TE how to map character set kludge names
commonly found in mails to their official names.
The most prominent example is the IBMPC charset kludge. This kludge
line is now obsoleted and should be replaced by CPxxx charset
kludges, where xxx stands for the codepage that is used. MsgEd TE
only knows about the new CPxxx charset. Therefore, you need to
use CharsetAlias to tell MsgEd TE how to interprete a
IBMPC charset kludge. Now this is difficult, because, if the
IBMPC charset kludge is not followed by a @CODEPAGE kludge
line, you do not know which codepage the author of the mail has
used. According to FSC0054, he should have used codepage 437, but in
Western Europe for example the majority of users put IBMPC charset
kludge lines into their mails, but actually use codepage 850, and in Russia
the same applies for codepage 866. This means that you have to do
assumptions. A users who reads mainly texts in Western European languages
should probably use CharsetAlias IBMPC CP850, while when you intend to
read Russian echomail, CharsetAlias IBMPC CP866 is probably the right
thing to do.
Also, some users are simply using fantasy names for the CHRS kludge
line. The following commands have also proven to be handy:
CharsetAlias +7_FIDO CP866 CharsetAlias RUFIDO CP866 CharsetAlias ASCII CP437
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