[aprssig] UTF-8 for APRS (testing)

[Stephen H. Smith]

Robert Bruninga wrote:
>> I've run some quick tests with APRS clients 
>> via both the Internet and RF....
>>
>> Apparently the North American version of the 
>> D700 has only two character sets embedded 
>> -- US 7-bit ASCII and some proprietary...
>>  Japanese symbol coding.    The German/
>> Scandinavian string was rendered as "Japanese garbage"!
>>     
>
> OK, but what about how it "works"?
>   

Apparently you haven't yet looked at my web page at


     <http://wa8lmf.net/UTF8_Message_Tests>


which includes screen shots of exactly how the various clients reacted 
to the incoming "message". 


> 1) Does it properly find the Line number?
>   
What does "it" refer to?   What is supposed to find the line number?     
  It's just an autoresponder that spews out 4 lines when it sees a blank 
message addressed to it over the APRS-IS. 

 From the screen shots on my web page, the 4-line response seems to have 
line numbers from 1 to 4

> 2) does it properly ACK the message
>
>
>   


Again, The UTF-8 test "robot" is NOT a full APRS client.  However, 
according to Hessu's earlier post:P


"It's a bit simple, just threw it together quickly, so it doesn't do 
things like retrying message transmission. It does send message IDs and 
it does respond with an ack to incoming messages. "

> 3) Will it properly REJect the message if full,
>   

WHAT is supposed to reject the message if full?

> 4) can you "edit" the message... Etc.
>   

Huh?   It's an incoming message originated by a robot autoresponder.  
Why would I be editing it?  I'm receiving it; not sending it.


> 5) Do intermediate Igates see it as a valid message and pass it
> to RF?
>   
"Intermediate" igates?  What does this mean by contrast with "normal" 
igates?  

Again, a  look at the RF test part of the web page shows that the 
request from a D700 on RF to the Internet (via an igate)  and response 
(from Internet back to RF via an igate)  successfully made it.   


[By the way, this was the first time I have EVER gone through the kludgy 
masochism of composing a message on the D700 to send ; I  DO NOT care to 
repeat the experience!]


THIS D700 will now go back to being controlled by a laptop running 
UIview......

> 6) Does it get captured in the message list on the various APRS
> internet servers
>
>
>   

Again, the web page results show TWO screen shots from findu.com.    
They show what would be expected; i.e.  that normal modern browsers 
handle UTF-8 with no problems at all, by contrast with the dedicated 
APRS clients that are strictly 7-bit ASCII.  

Again, you seem to be missing that the UTF coding only applies to the 
body text of a message entered in a non-English language.  The packet 
headers, as well as control codes in the payload field, don't change.  

> 7) Anything else we need to verify?
>
> In otherwords, I don't care if gyberish produces gyberish, what
> counts is whether the APRS protocol still works.  
It's not gibberish producing giberish -- it's legitimate message strings 
producing giberish!  


Earlier (European) posters in this thread had said these strings 
displayed properly on the Euro version of the D700.  I was observing 
that the embedded symbol set/language support in the North American 
version of the D700 apparently differs  since it only produces garbage 
in Japanese.  

Implication:  If a Euro visitor to the US brings home a N.A. version of 
the D700 it won't display properly in Europe, even though his buddy's 
Euro D700 will.  


The protocol, as such, won't "break". However, devices with embedded 
controllers with minimal memory and buffers may break on text strings 
far longer than "traditional" 7-bit ASCII APRS messages.
> And we want to
> see the above tests on every major system...
>   
What you mean by "major system"?    Every regional APRS server?     
Every APRS client program?  Every piece of hardware?   I would consider 
these major applications or well-known pieces of hardware.  I would NOT 
consider them "major systems"....



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Stephen H. Smith    wa8lmf (at) aol.com
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