Bug?? Multibyte character support

[azrealhk]

I do not know where to post bugs, so I apologize beforehand.

It seems there is a problem displaying multibyte characters for filenames. I am using chinese (zh_tw) filenames and they do not display properly on the My videos / My Pictures / My Music file list.
The directory names are correct.

After some investigation, it seems that it is not a font problems (checked the skins). It may be related to the @filename and @foldername variables defined differently. folder name is fine but filename seems to be strip to 7-bits.

Edit: I am using version V0.99.12

[zehd]

I do not know where to post bugs, so I apologize beforehand.

It seems there is a problem displaying multibyte characters for filenames. I am using chinese (zh_tw) filenames and they do not display properly on the My videos / My Pictures / My Music file list.
The directory names are correct.

After some investigation, it seems that it is not a font problems (checked the skins). It may be related to the @filename and @foldername variables defined differently. folder name is fine but filename seems to be strip to 7-bits.

Edit: I am using version V0.99.12

I lived in Japan for 9 years and dealt with Double-byte characters in my programs. Japanese, Chinese and Korean all work the same way...

I do not have experience with double-byte fonts in GB-PVR though, so I can offer only general advice...

It has been my experience that with English Windows, there are several available fonts. MS San Serif, Arial, Tahoma etc. These are single-byte fonts. If any program is set to use a specific font, like this, the double-bytes won't display properly.

In Japanese Windows, there is another default system font called Mincho. When I programmed for Japanese Windows, I had to specifically instructed the program to change the Character set and select the Mincho Font. I don't know the specific default double-byte font for Chinese Windows but I can't see MS doing things drastically different, considering they use the very same underlying double-byte calls and IME (Input Method Editing)...

That said, I suspect that the fonts are not correct in the skins you have been using with GB-PVR, as there are very specific references to fonts, and for the most part, the skins are written using Western fonts...

I suspect you will either need to modify an existing skin, or write one from scratch. I do not have much experience writing skins, but there are some that eat and drink the stuff. I would be happy to help you and/or them try to create a Chinese skin...

[sub]

I do not know where to post bugs, so I apologize beforehand.

It seems there is a problem displaying multibyte characters for filenames. I am using chinese (zh_tw) filenames and they do not display properly on the My videos / My Pictures / My Music file list.
The directory names are correct.

After some investigation, it seems that it is not a font problems (checked the skins). It may be related to the @filename and @foldername variables defined differently. folder name is fine but filename seems to be strip to 7-bits.

Edit: I am using version V0.99.12

Someone else pointed out this a few days ago. I've now got a sample file and will look into it for the next release.

[zehd]

How Ironic that this question is posed the very same day I recognize the same limitation with my own software. I'll be asking you (sub) some questions in the dev forum...

[Fatman_do]

I suspect you will either need to modify an existing skin, or write one from scratch. I do not have much experience writing skins, but there are some that eat and drink the stuff. I would be happy to help you and/or them try to create a Chinese skin...

I eat a bunch, drink a bunch, and .....well what do you know, I also try to help make the most user friendly/universal skin. If you find there is a font style that works best, I'll be happy to include it into the Community Skin. That is what it is there for.

I can also make some test skin files if it helps (for any skin of your choice, it doesn't have to be one I am associated with, I can support them all).

I don't understand a lick of any language other than "American" (I am told it is not English <sarcasm>) , but I can help where I can.

[zehd]

I eat a bunch, drink a bunch, and .....well what do you know, I also try to help make the most user friendly/universal skin. If you find there is a font style that works best, I'll be happy to include it into the Community Skin. That is what it is there for.

I can also make some test skin files if it helps (for any skin of your choice, it doesn't have to be one I am associated with, I can support them all).

I don't understand a lick of any language other than "American" (I am told it is not English <sarcasm>) , but I can help where I can.

And it looks like it IS an internal character set issue that sub is looking into. I'm having somehting similar with ZRename... But I'm def going to help get this working...

[Fatman_do]

If you need my assistance, PM me so I don't hold up the process. I only read about 80% of the posts lately instead of everything.

[azrealhk]

To to clear up some matters.

I do not think it is a font problem because the skin I am using (Blue), set it as Arial for the video library page.
It draw the text for both folder and filenames using "Drawtext" function or something like that. The only difference between file and directory text is.
1: Directory draws a folder icon first.
2: filename uses @filename variable and folder uses @foldername variable.

That is why i suspect it is more an internal problem rather than code (as I mentioned that directory names are fine, only file names). It is probably more to do with the variable passed into @filename.

Anyway this is not a major problem, just annoying since every thing else seems to be display OK.