Netscape 4.04 for X Windows Testing Results

MUAs Testing results

Product: Netscape Messanger 4.04 Communicator
URL: http://home.netscape.com/navigator/index.html
Product Contact:
Environment: FreeBSD, xrus (Rus, Latin), X-Win32 Utility
Test date: 1998-03, 1998-06-30

1. Results of the test

Netscape Messanger 4.04 Communicator

Charset
ISO 8859-1
Latin 1 KOI8-R
Russian KOI8-U
Ukrainian Windows
Cyrillic CP1251 ISO 8859-2
Latin 2 ISO 8859-4
Latin4
Scandinavian/ Baltic

test-1 (Displaying) Pass Pass Pass Pass

test-2 (Printing) Pass Pass Pass Pass

test-3
(Replying with non-ASCII A, S) Pass Pass Pass Maybe

test-4
(Replying with non-ASCII Body) Pass Pass Pass Maybe

test-5
(Replying Copy& Paste) Pass Pass Pass Maybe

test-6
(Forwarding) Pass Pass Pass Pass

test-7
(Typing on kbd) Pass Pass Pass Fail (3)

test-8
(Exch non-ASCII default)

test-9
(UTF7/UTF8) Pass (6) Maybe (6) Fail Fail

Comment:
* Setting Language (of 56) for Browser
(2) You can?t change encoding for Cyrillic text when reading message
(3) Use features of current Keyboard
(4) All sent messages have only charset=iso8859-1
(5) Message list displayed only in Latin1
(6) Correctly suport only UTF7

2. Examination of Multilingual features of Mail User?s Agents

Netscape Messenger 4.04 SETUPs and First Examination
1. Language Settings ? No Language Settings
2. Changing Document Encoding when Reading/Displaying message
Options>Document Encodings

Western (Latin 1)

Central European (ISO)

Japanese (Auto-Detect)

Japanese (Shift_JIS)

Japanese (EUC-JP)

Traditional Chinese (Big5)

Traditional Chinese (EUTC-TW)

Simplified Chinese (GB)

Korean (EUC-KR)

Korean (ISO-2022-KR)

Cyrillic (KOI8-R)

Cyrillic (ISO8859-5)

Greek (ISO 8859-7)

Turkish (ISO 8859-9)

User Defined

3. Encoding Setting
Options>General Preference>Fonts>For the Encoding

Cyrillic (KOI8-R)

Japanese (jis_x0201)

Japanese (jis_x0208-1983)

Korean (ks_c_5601-1987)

Simplified Chinese (gb_2312-80)

User Defined

Western (iso-8859-1)

Mail Send

Edit>Preferences>Mail & Groups>Messages>Send Message that use 8-bit characters

As is

Using the ?quoted prontable? MIME encoding

Mail Servers

POP

IMAP

Attach file

As is

Convert to plain text

Convert to Postscript

3. Free form documenting of testing process

Tested MUA - Netscape Messenger 4.04
Reference MUA - Netscape Mail 3.01 Gold

Netscape Messenger 4.04 READ

When displaying/reading message you can select your own Document Encoding by Vew>Encoding

This sometimes leads to difficulties in reading message when wrong charset parameter is used in message

to overcome this you can read message in View>Page Source

Note. Overriding parameter is happened only for Cyrillic group. If you select Latin1 or Latin2 display is changed

When you change encoding to UTF8, body text disappeares/reduced to some ASCII characters (??)

Forwarded message displayed with its original charset parameter

Subject: for Cyrillic Encodings always is displayed in KOI8-R

When you try to read Cyrillic text with encoding not from Cyrillic group, message body and header are dispalyed in CP1251

OBSERVATION: Netscape Messenger uses internal converting of message text (body) to CP1251 and display it not correctly when changing non-cyrillic Encoding

Netscape Messanger 4.04 COMPOSE

You can change View>Encoding (for Cyrillic) but it doesnt affect message composer display

Suggestion: Message Encoding is selected before openning Composer windows

Forwarded message is sent with charset selected before composing

There is not completely clear situation when forwarded message (without original charset papameter) is displayed correctly

When Reply: for Cyrillic message text is converted to koi8-r if needed

therefore reply on koi8-r message with View-cp1251 cause wrong copbverting - info is lost

SUGGESTION. You should keep message charset when Replying

Note. The latter is not happened when reply with Latin1 - Excellent!

Composing with Cut & Paste is performed correctly

Compose with UTF8 and UTF7 has the same Content-Type: text/plain; charset=x-UNICODE-2-0-UTF-7

Netscape Messanger 4.04 SEND

Cyrillic message is always converted to KOI8-R when sent (i.e. convertion is happened if needed)

That is why when you type text with CP1251 but selected KOI8-R before openning Compose windows, convertion is not aplaied but charset koi8-r is inserted.

If you need to type in KOI8-R you should type ?blindly?

RECOMMENDATIONS

Netscape Messanger 4.04 Communicator
Charset	ISO 8859-1 Latin 1	KOI8-R Russian	KOI8-U Ukrainian	Windows Cyrillic CP1251	ISO 8859-2 Latin 2	ISO 8859-4 Latin4 Scandinavian/ Baltic
test-1 (Displaying)	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass
test-2 (Printing)	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass
test-3 (Replying with non-ASCII A, S)	Pass	Pass	Pass	Maybe
test-4 (Replying with non-ASCII Body)	Pass	Pass	Pass	Maybe
test-5 (Replying Copy& Paste)	Pass	Pass	Pass	Maybe
test-6 (Forwarding)	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass
test-7 (Typing on kbd)	Pass	Pass	Pass	Fail (3)
test-8 (Exch non-ASCII default)
test-9 (UTF7/UTF8)	Pass (6)	Maybe (6)	Fail	Fail

Netscape Messenger 4.04	READ When displaying/reading message you can select your own Document Encoding by Vew>Encoding This sometimes leads to difficulties in reading message when wrong charset parameter is used in message to overcome this you can read message in View>Page Source Note. Overriding parameter is happened only for Cyrillic group. If you select Latin1 or Latin2 display is changed When you change encoding to UTF8, body text disappeares/reduced to some ASCII characters (??) Forwarded message displayed with its original charset parameter Subject: for Cyrillic Encodings always is displayed in KOI8-R When you try to read Cyrillic text with encoding not from Cyrillic group, message body and header are dispalyed in CP1251 OBSERVATION: Netscape Messenger uses internal converting of message text (body) to CP1251 and display it not correctly when changing non-cyrillic Encoding
Netscape Messanger 4.04	COMPOSE You can change View>Encoding (for Cyrillic) but it doesnt affect message composer display Suggestion: Message Encoding is selected before openning Composer windows Forwarded message is sent with charset selected before composing There is not completely clear situation when forwarded message (without original charset papameter) is displayed correctly When Reply: for Cyrillic message text is converted to koi8-r if needed therefore reply on koi8-r message with View-cp1251 cause wrong copbverting - info is lost SUGGESTION. You should keep message charset when Replying Note. The latter is not happened when reply with Latin1 - Excellent! Composing with Cut & Paste is performed correctly Compose with UTF8 and UTF7 has the same Content-Type: text/plain; charset=x-UNICODE-2-0-UTF-7
Netscape Messanger 4.04	SEND Cyrillic message is always converted to KOI8-R when sent (i.e. convertion is happened if needed) That is why when you type text with CP1251 but selected KOI8-R before openning Compose windows, convertion is not aplaied but charset koi8-r is inserted. If you need to type in KOI8-R you should type ?blindly?
	RECOMMENDATIONS