Hallo mark!

Whoa!  Something funky just happened.  I am seeing all sorts of weirdness in
your reply and that is from all 3 paths, although 1 of the paths has the word
wrapping while the other two doesn't.  Offhand I don't see how a single 0x8d
could have caused it but perhaps it did, which makes the schpiel about it in
fts-0001.016 very much foreboding ... if indeed that is what caused what I am
seeing.

 ml> i may not have the UTF-8 -> CP437 conversion stuff right

What's to get right?  Just try this on a commandline;

    echo -e "\x8d" | iconv -f cp437 -t utf8

If you cannot display utf8 characters on your shell then add another pipe such
as this;

    echo -e "\x8d" | iconv -f cp437 -t utf8 | xxd

which will print out this;

    00000000: c3ac 0a                                  ...

Note the c3ac part.  That is the same as u00ec except in 8 bit hex-speak.  If
you're seeing anything else then something is horribly wrong.

As for KDE I refuse to speak for or against it.  I am indifferent to any GUI
apps as far as others usage of them and never use them myself without getting
paid extaordinary amounts of pure, hard legal tender by those who would wish me
 to troubleshoot those apps for them.  Needless to say that never happens which
 is more reason not to go there.

 ml> all without having to fark around with some other 3rd party
 ml> muckity muck with your fingers crossed that it will come out
 ml> properly and not be all screwed up

Exactly how is that all working out for you?

Het leven is goed,
Maurice

... Huil niet om mij, ik heb vi.
--- GNU bash, version 5.0.3(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
 * Origin: Little Mikey's EuroPoint - Ladysmith BC, Canada (2:280/464.113)