Unicode Support in kcd
======================

Currently kcd support the following Unicode features:

- All Unicode characters that is not bidirectional text.  Combining
  characters are tested.  Double width characters need some further
  testing.
- UTF-8 keyboard input and screen output.
- UTF-8 directory names.


To enable Unicode support in kcd, you need UTF-8 version of fonts, xterm,
ncurses and glibc.  libutf8 can be used instead of the UTF-8 supported
version of glibc.

Note: kcd built with Unicode support works with both normal (non Unicode)
      and UTF-8 (Unicode) xterm's.  But the screen display is somewhat
      slower under normal xterm than that without Unicode support
      due to extra processing needed in ncurses library.

Building kcd with Unicode Support
=================================

1. Obtain Unicode font if you don't have one.  The UTF-8 and Unicode FAQ
   page at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html contains links to
   download locations for several fonts.

2. For xfree 4.0 or newer, the default xterm is compiled with builtin UTF-8
   support.

   For older versions you have to build it yourself.
   Obtain xterm from http://dickey.his.com/xterm/xterm.html
   Build with option `--enable-wide-chars' given to the configure script.

3. Obtain ncurses version 5.3 or newer.  Build ncurses with option
   `--enable-widec' given to the configure script.  You could put the
   include files and libraries in the directories ../include and ../lib
   respectively to avoid messing up with other ncurses applications.

4. If your system comes with glibc 2.2 or later, you do not need this step.
   Otherwise obtain libutf8 from
   http://clisp.cons.org/~haible/packages-libutf8.html

5. Run kcd's configure with option `--enable-wide-chars', build and
   install kcd.

6. Run xterm with option

	xterm -u8 -fn FONT

   where FONT should be substituted with your Unicode font.

7. Set environment variable LC_ALL as below (in case of US English)

	export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

   If you are using UTF-8 support from libutf8, add the following
   environment variable

	export LD_PRELOAD=.../libutf8_plug.so	# Substitute ...
						# with actual dir.

   Then run kcd.

   To check whether Unicode is working, look at the arrows at the end of
   any scroll bar.  When in Unicode mode, real arrow characters are used
   instead of just ASCII characters (<, >, ^ and v) or triangle symbols.

   To check whether gettext is working, run kcd -h.  A nice closing quote
   should appear in place of the ASCII ' in the word Kriang's.