on http://messenger.netscape.com/bookmark/4_5/messengerstart.html we have a little "cent" symbol. note, it is 0xA2, not ¢ as you'd expect. this character is showing up correctly in the browser window, but not in the messenger start page. I'll attach gifs shortly.

I don't know how that page is loaded. But if that doesn't go through libmime then it could be the same issue as 19587. UTF-8 is set to the webshell which is used for the mail view (in nsMessenger::SetWindow). I remember that was done because we had problems related to META chaset reload/crash. If I don't set it (UTF-8) then I can see "cent". But I assume it won't work for localized pages (non Latin1).

Rich, can you take a look some day. Lowish priority.

Adding tao and msanz since this is a localizability issue. In you change a file bin/defaults/pref/mailnews.js to set Japanese page (e.g., "http://directory.netscape.com/World/Japanese/") for "mailnews.start_page.url", the page cannot be seen correctly. I will attach the screen shot.

Work around for the problem is to encode the start up pages as UTF-8.

Ok, I have a fix for this one. What I do is wait until we are asked to display a mail message before I set the charset on the webshell to UTF-8. So, while the start page is loading, the WebShell will act just like the browser with respect to character sets. Seems to work fine when I set my start page to: http://directory.netscape.com/World/Japanese/ I will attach a patch to this bug report. - rhp

Hey Rich, with this change, when you later do set the character set on the webshell, does that force an extra reflow of the entire 3-pane window? I wonder if we'll notice this full reflow on slower machines like mac and linux were reflows are expensive later on. By setting it when we first create the 3-pane window, we are hiding the reflow 'cause the window hasn't been brought up yet. Now we'll see a reflow of the whole window when you click on that first message. Maybe it won't be noticeable but I thought I'd mention it in case it's a problem...

I'll try to keep an eye on it, but it will only be the first message that you display that does this. The tradeoff is that any non UTF-8 start page will be totally horked. As an example try setting your mail startpage to: http://directory.netscape.com/World/Japanese/ and take a gander. Pretty ugly! - rhp

I'm not arguing that the bug doesn't need fixed. I'm sure it looks horrible. I'm just trying to think through the ramifications of this potential fix. Also, now that I think about it, are you changing the character set on the message pane webshell or the webshell for the mail 3-pane. I bet if it's the message pane webshell it probably isn't a problem since we are reflowing this pane to display the message anyway...

I'm just changing the charset on the webshell that displays the message (the lower right corner of the 3 pane). - rhp

Just checked in fix. - rhp

Verified as fixed on win32, macos, and linux using the following builds: win32 commercial seamonkey build 00051109-m16 installed on Dell P500, Win98 macos commercial seamonkey build 00051008-m16 installed on G3/400, MacOS 9.04 linux commercial seamonkey build 00051008-m16 installed on P200, RedHat 6.1 The "cents" characters displays correctly in todays builds. The messenger start page has changed since this bug was initially reported. Used the following page instead .... http://home.netscape.com/qwest/long_distance/index.html?cp=hom05p2