PMDF System Manager's Guide
PMDF-REF-6.0

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28.4.2 Character set handling

The text encoded in PostScript files will typically be encoded in a platform dependent, or possibly even application dependent, character set. PMDF must know what character set is used so that it can properly convert the text extracted from the PostScript file to the DEC MultiNational Character Set (DEC MCS) prior to processing by the addressing channel. For instance, Macintosh systems will use a character set in which an apostrophe (the ASCII character 27 in hexadecimal) will appear as the character with ordinal value D5; (in DEC MCS, this appears as the character Ő). This causes the addressing channel command 

:Recipient's name: Fresnel
to appear in the PostScript file on the VAX as 
:RecipientŐs name: Fresnel

The CHARSET option is used to inform PMDF as to which character set is used in the PostScript. This option may specify any character set defined in the file charsets.txt in the PMDF table directory. Additional character sets may be added to that file as needed. When character sets are added to charsets.txt, the file must be recompiled and reinstalled: 

$ PMDF CHBUILD
$ INSTALL REPLACE PMDF_CHARSET_DATA

Now, not only must PMDF be informed as to what character set is used, but it must also be told to perform character set conversions when processing mail queued to the addressing channel. To the mapping file add the table² 

CHARSET-CONVERSION 
 
  IN-CHAN=l;OUT-CHAN=address*;CONVERT        Yes 
  IN-CHAN=l;OUT-CHAN=address*;IN-CHARSET=*   OUT-CHARSET=DEC-MCS
This will cause all messages queued to the addressing channel from the l channel (i.e., the local channel) to be converted to DEC MCS. (The queue to e-mail symbiont submits messages under the guise of the local channel.) See Section 6.1 for documentation on the use of the CHARSET-CONVERSION mapping table; see Chapter 5 for documentation on the use of the mapping file itself.

If you have a compiled configuration, then it must be recompiled before these entries in the mapping file will take effect. Likewise, the configuration needs to be recompiled whenever changes are made to the mapping file.

Note that a single queue to e-mail symbiont can only handle one type of incoming character set. Additional symbionts must be set up to handle additional character sets. This is not a limitation of the symbiont, but rather an inability to determine the input source to a symbiont. Different input sources can only be distinguished by using different printer queues which, in turn, requires multiple symbionts, one per printer queue. So, a separate printer queue should be set up for each set of input sources using a given character set. For instance, a site with both Macintosh and PC users should set up two queue to e-mail printer queues: one for the Macintosh users and one for the PC users. The q2email_option. file might then appear as 

ADDRESSING_CHANNEL=address.innosoft.com 
CHARSET_queue_mac=MACINTOSHPS 
CHARSET_queue_pc=WINDOWSPS 
FROM_ALLOWED=1
where queue_mac and queue_pc are, respectively, the names of the Macintosh and PC printer queues.

Note

² If you already have a CHARSET-CONVERSION table in the mapping file, then simply add the necessary table entries.

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