[PLUG] Unicode mystery

[Dale Snell]

On Wed, 1 May 2013 16:24:43 -0700
Keith Lofstrom <keithl at gate.kl-ic.com> wrote:

> On Wed, May 01, 2013 at 08:02:26AM -0700, John Jason Jordan wrote:
> ...
> > was even more curious was a mystery glyph in the subject line: "’."
> > From the context the glyph was intended to by an apostrophe. This
> > glyph
> ...
> 
> I use a lot more than ordinary keyboard characters in my emails,
> with vim-enabled constructs like CO₂ and E = ½mv² .
> 
> How many of you can read those?

No problem here: Carbon dioxide and E equals one-half m v-squared when
using both Claws Mail and the nmh show command.  However, the latter
depends on the terminal program (and the font it uses?).  Roxterm,
urxvt, and Terminology work.  The VTs (<alt><ctrl>1, etc) can't
display the subscripted two of carbon dioxide or the "’" that John
was talking about -- they just show a small box.  (The VTs have a
limited character set; they don't speak Unicode.)  Interestingly,
urxvt can't display the box glyph (it doesn't show anything), though
Roxterm does.  Terminology doesn't display the box glyph either.  It
displays what looks like a small, mid-line apostrophe.  Just to gild
the lily, emacs, with which I'm writing this message, displays "’"
as "\222": octal 222.

> So, think of <92> as a warning - the sender probably runs M$,
> their machine is probably p0wned, and their attachments will
> p0wn other M$ machines.  Fix them before you forward them.

I'm sure John's correspondent's machine runs M$, but that says nothing
about its state of viral p0wnage.  As Jim Garrison mentioned earlier,
John's correspondent's software is probably using the Windows 1252
code page.  Unfortunately, some people seem to think that's Unicode.
*Pfagh!*

--Dale

--
Hanlon's Razor:  Never ascribe to malice that which can be
adequately explained by stupidity.