Re: [Groff] groff.1: enhance documentation for device utf8.

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Bernd,

> > If your terminal or output device only supports ISO-latin or is
> > configured for ISO-latin or some other narrow character or non-UTF
> > locale, shoving UTF-8 down its throat will not make you happy but
> > result in gibberish.  Actually, there is too much software already
> > wrongly assuming that "everything can handle UTF-8".
> 
> Everything without UTF-8 is old-fashioned.

Once various terminal emulators, SSH, and TTY-multiplexors like
screen(1), give involved, UTF-8 can easily be unavailable due to
configuration.

> > To handle UTF-8 output, your terminal needs to be specifically
> > configured for UTF-8.  That may not be possible for all terminals
> > and in all situations, and certainly many users don't do it.
> 
> And?  All modern PCs support Unicode.

Yes, but users have non-modern personal set-ups because their ~/.profile
has been with them for years and sets the locale to a non-ASCII
single-byte one because back then it was the handy thing to do to send
emails with their language's characaters.

> > Regarding defaults, switching groff from ISO-latin by default to
> > UTF-8 by default is certainly something that shouldn't be attempted
> > in a casual commit without a discussion.  I'm not sure you are
> > driving into that direction, but your recent groffer commit might
> > indicate that you might be - or it might not, i'm not sure.
> 
> That default switch occurs only in the documentation.

The documentation could suggest UTF-8 is preferred if the user has it
available and can correctly configure their system to provide it, but it
needs to make clear that it's not simply a case of saying -Tutf8 and all
will be well.

The current code has worked well for a long time.

Cheers, Ralph.