.\" @(#)unicode_start.1 1.0 010203 aeb

.TH UNICODE_START 1 "3 Feb 2001"

.SH NAME

unicode_start \- put keyboard and console in unicode mode

.SH SYNOPSIS

.B unicode_start

.RI [ font " [" umap ]]

.SH DESCRIPTION

.IX "unicode_start command" "" "\fLunicode_start\fR command"  

.LP

The

.B unicode_start

command will put the keyboard and console into Unicode (UTF-8) mode.

.LP

For the keyboard this means that one can attach 16-bit U+xxxx values

to keyboard keys using

.BR loadkeys (1),

and have these appear as UTF-8 input to user programs.

Also, that one can type hexadecimal Alt-xxxx using the numeric keypad,

and again produce UTF-8.

.LP

For the console this means that the kernel expects UTF-8 output

from user programs, and displays the output accordingly.

.LP

The parameter

.I font

is a font that is loaded. It should have a built-in Unicode map,

or, if it hasn't, such a map can be given explicitly as second parameter.

When no font was specified, the current font is kept.

.SH NOTE

Unicode mode is a parameter with a value per virtual console.

However, usually the font and keymap is common to all consoles.

.SH "SEE ALSO"

.BR dumpkeys (1),

.BR kbd_mode (1),

.BR loadkeys (1),

.BR unicode_stop (1),

.BR utf-8(7),

.BR setfont (8)