Encoding of decoded text should be easy to change

[orgwem]

It should be easy to switch between different text encoding for the decoded text. Encodings should contain at least

• UTF-8
• ISO Latin 1 (ISO 8859-1)
• Windows CP 1252
  Preferably more encodings would be helpful, e.g. UTF-16 and ISO Latin 9 (ISO 8859-15)

[fbeyl]

I think allowing any encoding would be a great plus. I would like to use this extension together with the zowe explorer extension. The zowe explorer allows handling datasets from IBM mainframe z/OS. These datasets come with all different ebcdic encodings. Full text datasets are translated during download but datasets which combine text with non text data can't be converted and must be downloaded in binary form. Browsing with hexeditor is ok for the hex part of the display but not for the decoded part because it does not take the encoding from z/OS. I know the encoding but can't tell hexeditor about it so it shows wrong decoded characters.

[fbeyl]

Similar: #187

[FALLAI-Denis]

Hi

We need support for EBCDIC files.

Some are parts of Git repository (declared binary in .gitattributes and stored "as is").
Others are downloaded in binary mode from z/os using Zowe (Zowe Explorer or Zowe CLI / API).

It exists many EBCDIC encoding:

• IBM-037 : US
• IBM-1047 : Unix System Services on z/os
• IBM-500 : International
• IBM-1147 : French with euro
• etc.

[kim-dongryeong]

Is it currently possible to change the encoding (code page) of the decoded text? I can't find a way. How to do it?

[FALLAI-Denis]

Hi

We need support for EBCDIC files.

Some are parts of Git repository (declared binary in .gitattributes and stored "as is"). Others are downloaded in binary mode from z/os using Zowe (Zowe Explorer or Zowe CLI / API).

It exists many EBCDIC encoding:

• IBM-037 : US
• IBM-1047 : Unix System Services on z/os
• IBM-500 : International
• IBM-1147 : French with euro
• etc.

Upon reflection, the hexadecimal interpretation of a file should be based on the encoding choice defined in the VS Code editor.

• If VS Code determines that the file has UTF-8 encoding, then it should be interpreted as UTF-8.
• If VS Code determines that the file has Windows-1252 encoding, then the interpretation should be Windows-1252.
• Same for all encodings supported by VS Code.

To change the interpretation, you must change the encoding associated with the file in VS Code.

As for files from a system with an encoding not supported by VS Code, in particular EBCDIC files, often containing a mixture of display characters (convertible) and non-displayable bytes (non-convertible), retrieved from an IBM z/OS system without conversion, then we must use a hexadecimal interpreter specific to the management of these files.
See :

• Editor in hexadecimal dump mode with EBCDIC interpretation

Thanks.