Display of gb2312 in `emacs -nw'

[Reiner Steib]

In GNU Emacs 21.3.50.39 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.2.1)
 of 2004-11-22 on lumberjack
configured using `configure '--prefix=/import/xtra/emacs/HEAD' '--with-gtk''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: POSIX
  value of $LC_CTYPE: en_US.UTF-8
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: POSIX
  locale-coding-system: utf-8
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

gb2312 characters are not displayed correctly in an UTF-8 enabled
xterm when started with `emacs -nw'.

To reproduce:

Save the following to a file `gb2312.txt' and start emacs in an UTF-8
enabled xterm:

  uxterm -font '-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-1' \
    -e emacs -nw -Q gb2312.txt

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
山 中何所有
;; Local Variables:
;; coding: gb2312
;; End:
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Instead of the Chinese characters, I see boxes.

But after `M-x describe-char RET', all the Chinese characters are
displayed correctly.  During `M-x describe-char RET', the following
libraries are loaded (apparently loading of those libraries is
required to display the gb2312 chars correctly):

,----[ *Messages* ]
| Loading descr-text...done
| Loading composite...done
| Loading subst-ksc...done
| Loading subst-gb2312...done
| Loading subst-big5...done
| Loading subst-jis...done
| Loading help-mode...done
| Loading wid-edit...done
`----

(When saving the same file with coding: utf-8, all characters are
displayed correctly from the start.)

Bye, Reiner.

-- 
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