ATARIST encoding for linux iconv

[ThorstenOtto]

Almost forgot this, but a few weeks ago i hacked together a gconv module for iconv. iconv is the tool on linux that can convert between lots of character encoding. However atarist (although present in the iconv source distribution) is usually not compiled in. Furthermore, on linux based system, the core of iconv is part of the glibc, so recompiling iconv yourself does not help. Luckily, the implementation in glibc uses gconv shared modules to load character sets on demand, and here is the one for atarist encoding. Instructions are contained in the archive. Maybe someone will find this useful.

PS.: the compiled module is for 64bit systems only.

[mfro]

As an additional hint that might not be obvious to everybody (that I, personally, find extremly useful, however): when cross compiling, this can be used to convert strings during compilation.

m68k-atari-mint-gcc has the option "-fexec-charset" that allows you to translate compiled string constants written in the default charset of your host (e.g. UTF8, standard on Linux) into the Atari target charset on the fly.

I.e., if you have a .c file with string constants

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const char str[] = "characters: äöüß";

written in UTF8, characters will be automatically converted into the Atari charset with the option "-fexec-charset=ATARI". On the Atari, "magically", the correct "special characters" will appear at runtime. This option makes use of Thorsten's iconv module.

No more fiddling with hex constants in strings, no accidents with git or modern editors anymore. Thanks, Thorsten!

[ragnar76]

Works like a charm but in Linux Mint 20.2 and Debian 10 i had to copy it to /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gconv/ to get it to work. There is also the gconv-modules

[ThorstenOtto]

Yes, sorry, other distributions might have different directories where the modules are stored. If in doubt, just do a

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$ sudo find /usr -name gconv-modules

Edit: forgot to mention: that file is most likely been overwritten if glibc is updated, so you may have to redo the install steps after that,

[ragnar76]

in best cases, apt will ask you if it is okay to overwrite the changes

[Eero Tamminen]

I.e., if you have a .c file with string constants written in UTF8, characters will be automatically converted into the Atari charset with the option "-fexec-charset=ATARI". On the Atari, "magically", the correct "special characters" will appear at runtime. This option makes use of Thorsten's iconv module.

Thanks, this is really useful!

[alexh]

Thanks. This was used to convert the Amberstar source code that was released yesterday

[saulot]

alexh: I've just seen the repo (https://github.com/jhorneman/amberstar), that's awesome..

[Cyprian]

just for the record:
https://github.com/jhorneman/ambermoon
https://github.com/jhorneman/amberstar

[ThorstenOtto]

You should better make an announcement for this. People searching info about amberstar/ambermoon will certainly not look into a thread talking about iconv

[Cyprian]

You should better make an announcement for this. People searching info about amberstar/ambermoon will certainly not look into a thread talking about iconv

it was announced today. I have seen a someone post here on AF , but now I'm not able to find it. Maybe it was removed/deleted.