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> The color scheme in jwm was designed for 256 or more
> colors.  If you have only 16 colors, it will be forced
> to choose an available color, which can be less than
> ideal.  Apparently bluish grey shows as black on your
> system.

Would icewm work better in 16 colors?

> > After all my Windows 95 also runs in 4-bit coulour modes,
> > yet it shows a multiplicity of colours, manipulating the
> > HW palettes
>
> I know nothing about Windows 95.  However, I would
> be surprised to find that it is able to create a
> multiplicity of colors on a VGA monitor.

It probably dithers the colors, meaning it approximates a missing color by 
using a mixture of existing ones.  This is not very pretty.  The early 
versions of Netscape used to support dithering.

Some of the background colors in Windows show up cross-hatched when using 
4-bit color.

> > not to speak of the national keyboard at least in
> > the GUI,
>
> I am surprised that none of our foreign-language users
> have helped you with this.  However, here are the
> instructions Chris provided a few years ago for BL1
> and BL2:

Is there a link to this at the BL site?

> -----------------------------------------------------
>
> Adding support for foreign language can be divided into:
>
> 1. changing font and keyboard layout to proper one.
> 2. setting linux to show messages in proper language.
> 3. adding support for other programs like mc.
> 4. adding manpages in required language
>
> As for Console:
> ===============
> 1. changing font and keyboard layout to proper one.
>
> Check and put if required your font into
> /usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts (BL1)
> /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (BL2)


I installed kbd.tgz from SW7.1 in BL2 and it puts things in the same place 
as listed for BL1 - /usr/lib/kbd....

> and keyboard
> /usr/lib/kbd/keymaps (BL1)
> /usr/share/kbd/keymaps (BL2)
>
> Now tell linux to use required font and keyboard map:
> (suppose we want to do Polish for BL1)
> ----------------------------------------------
> setfont /usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts/iso02grf.psf
> loadkeys /usr/lib/kbd/keymaps/pl02.map
> ----------------------------------------------
>
> I think in BL2 you might have to use 'consolechars"
> instead of 'setfont'

I use setfont in BL2.

> Test if it works:  try `pico`
> QUESTION: "It works in pico but not under pure command line!"

(This should read 'PROBLEM' and 'SOLUTION' not 'QUESTION' and 'ANSWER')

> ANSWER:   Put in ~/.inputrc the following:
> --------------------
> set meta-flag on
> set convert-meta off
> set output-meta on
> set input-meta on
> ---------------------
>
> 2. setting linux to show messages in proper language.
>
> For example, to do Polish, edit /etc/profile (or: ~/.profile)
> and put # before `export LC_ALL=POSIX` and add below:
> ------------------------
> export LANG=pl
> export LC_ALL=pl_PL
> export LESSCHARSET=latin1
> -------------------------
>
> 3. adding support for other programs like mc.
>
> In mc set in Options -> Display Bits -> ISO 8859-1 and
> Full 8 bits input, and Full 8 bits output.

Links can be set to different languages and fonts too. Setup, Language or 
Character set. Some languages are not fully translated so you get a 
mixture of the correct language and English.  Maybe Dutch uses 'Downloads' 
and 'Help' and 'About' as computer terms, but I doubt it uses 'Kill all 
connections' or 'Save bookmarks' or 'document info' (which I see when I 
choose Language Dutch).

Load the correct font before starting links (probably in rc).

Lynx lets you set various character sets in Options, Display character set 
(including 7-bit approximations, for when you don't have a font loaded).
You can also set preferred char set and language to tell remote servers.

> 4. adding manpages in required language

BL3 has text-format manpages and no way to read the groff-formated ones so 
I would not try this (nor do you have space to add man pages and you 
obviously know English well anyway).

You have made amazing progress.  Don't give up now!

Sindi