[aprssig] UTF-8 for APRS (testing)

[Robert Bruninga]

> UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646
> http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3629.txt
> 
> Bob B. should very least read the abstract..

To boil it all down to impact on present APRS systems, my
understanding of the impact of this encoding scheme (with
character sets other than 7 bit ascii) is simply the
introduction of any number of 8-bit bytes into any number of
places where text is used in APRS.  There are many issues as I
have elaborated before:

1) Delivery through digipeaters is not guaranteed
2) Delivery thgough Igates is not guarnateed
3) Display on current clients in most cases will not work
4) 8 bit bytes with high order bits set may cause problems to
existing hardware and clients.

The only concern I have ever had is point 4.

If we can thoroughly test and get a handle on #4, then I think
we are heading in the right direction.  Issues 1-3 are expected
for new introductions.

IN my previous email I sugested we need a table for every system
to be tested.  I suggested these test items.  I hope someone on
the APRSSIG can take on this huge project and coordinate all the
documentation of the results of these test.  Better yet, write
up a TEST plan and SPEC, so that all testing on every device and
client is consistent, and does give us the information we need.

> 1) Does it properly find the Line number?
> 2) does it properly ACK the message
* *) Soes it properly react to the ACK
> 3) Will it properly REJect the message if full,
> 4) can you "edit" the message... Etc.
> 5) Do intermediate Igates see it as a valid message and pass
it to RF?
> 6) Does it get captured in the message list on the various
APRS internet servers
* 7) what does each existing DIGIpeater implementation do with
it
* 8) What does the APRS-IS do with it?
* 9) What changes are needed in Igates?
> 10) 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.  And we want
to
> see the above tests on every major system...

Bob, WB4APR