Re: Can I add the charset parameter to the pilot device configuration?

[Matt Davey <mcdavey mrao cam ac uk>]

Hi Ladislav,

On Thu, 2004-11-11 at 08:21, lsla post cz wrote:

> 5) Charset is  a pilot (GPilotPilot) dependent property, therefore the
> code in pilot-link should be modified.

I assume you meant gnome-pilot should be modified, to add charset
support to gnome-pilot.

> 6) The code in pilot link can be easily replaced by the GLib function
> g_convert() removing pilot-link dependency on iconv.

I'm not sure I follow you here: you don't want to put g_convert() into
gnome-pilot!  iconv is okay in pilot-link because it's in glibc, not
glib.  pilot-link has no glib dependency, and that isn't going to
change, so it isn't going to get g_convert.  Anyway, g_convert uses
iconv under the hood so you're not removing a dependency.  Maybe I
misread you, and you mean to quit using the pilot-link conversion, and
use g_convert within the gnome-pilot code.  That would be good.

However, I think you're right that the pilot-link charset support was
put in specifically for the benefit of gnome-pilot.  That doesn't mean
that removing it is a good idea or even necessary: probably marking it
deprecated is less likely to annoy people wanting to upgrade pilot-link
without breaking evolution/gnome-pilot.

> I think that the best solution is:
> 
> 1) To move charset support from pilot-link to gnome-pilot, using
> g_convert instead of libiconv. The charset property  will be a part of
> GPilotPilot structure.
> 
> 2) Pilot-link will remain charset independent. [...]
> 
> 3) This will remove the dependency on libiconv and also the evolution
> configure script will be simpler.

There's no need to change pilot-link just now, IMO.

> I am just experimenting with this. I can set charset in config file and
> copy from/to pilot works fine. I have problems with synchronizing
> records, still. After I remove the bugs, I will send the patch here, and
> also to pilot-link and evolution lists for considering.

Great.  I look forward to seeing the results.  If you want testers, you
can search this list.  There have been a couple of people asking about
charset support over the last while (though I don't remember if it
was the device that had a non-CP1252 charset).

> Let the user choose his/her encoding.

The applet could check that the supplied string is supported by
g_convert().

All the best,

Matt