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nyanta's avatar
nyanta
Explorer | Level 3
2 years ago
Solved

~(TLIDE) in Japanese Shift-JIS text changes to ‾(OVERLINE)

When saving a .txt file with Shift_JIS text editor encoding in Windows 11, ~(TLIDE) is modified to ‾(OVERLINE) in Dropbox on iOS. This is a Dropbox bug specific to Japanese.

 

I would like you to fix it so that the sameness is maintained in the iOS app even after saving with Shift_JIS.

  • zacw's avatar
    zacw
    2 years ago

    I believe this is authoritatively correct depending on how you are inserting the tilde. For example, given this file:

    これはテストです。 これらはいくつかのランダムな文章です。
    ~ <- tilde

    With this hex representation:

    ┌────────┬─────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────┬────────┬────────┐
    │00000000│ 82 b1 82 ea 82 cd 83 65 ┊ 83 58 83 67 82 c5 82 b7 │×××××××e┊×X×g××××│
    │00000010│ 81 42 20 82 b1 82 ea 82 ┊ e7 82 cd 82 a2 82 ad 82 │×B ×××××┊××××××××│
    │00000020│ c2 82 a9 82 cc 83 89 83 ┊ 93 83 5f 83 80 82 c8 95 │××××××××┊××_×××××│
    │00000030│ b6 8f cd 82 c5 82 b7 81 ┊ 42 0a 7e 20 3c 2d 20 74 │××××××××┊B_~ <- t│
    │00000040│ 69 6c 64 65 0a ┊ │ilde_ ┊ │
    └────────┴─────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────┴────────┴────────┘

    Running this through iconv produces:

    > iconv -f shift-jis -t utf-8 file.txt
    これはテストです。 これらはいくつかのランダムな文章です。
    ‾ <- tilde

    However, given a UTF-8 encoded version (note this has an actual ~ in it, not the output above):

    ┌────────┬─────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────┬────────┬────────┐
    │00000000│ e3 81 93 e3 82 8c e3 81 ┊ af e3 83 86 e3 82 b9 e3 │××××××××┊××××××××│
    │00000010│ 83 88 e3 81 a7 e3 81 99 ┊ e3 80 82 20 e3 81 93 e3 │××××××××┊××× ××××│
    │00000020│ 82 8c e3 82 89 e3 81 af ┊ e3 81 84 e3 81 8f e3 81 │××××××××┊××××××××│
    │00000030│ a4 e3 81 8b e3 81 ae e3 ┊ 83 a9 e3 83 b3 e3 83 80 │××××××××┊××××××××│
    │00000040│ e3 83 a0 e3 81 aa e6 96 ┊ 87 e7 ab a0 e3 81 a7 e3 │××××××××┊××××××××│
    │00000050│ 81 99 e3 80 82 0a 7e 20 ┊ 3c 2d 20 74 69 6c 64 65 │×××××_~ ┊<- tilde│
    │00000060│ 0a ┊ │_ ┊ │
    └────────┴─────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────┴────────┴────────┘

    This produces an error when trying to convert:

    > iconv -f utf-8 -t shift-jis test-utf8.txt
    ����̓e�X�g�ł��B �����͂����‚��̃����_���ȕ��͂ł��B
    iconv: test-utf8.txt:2:0: cannot convert

    According to this StackOverflow post, it seems like there is not a canonical tilde representation of the ~ character in Shift_JIS, so the app is doing its best to try and preserve as much of your content as possible, even if it can't be encoded. This is also my experience when using other macOS tools that can interpret Shift_JIS, though some will preserve the invalid character I'm not sure that's always the desired behavior.

10 Replies

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    2 years ago

    Hi there nyanta, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

     

    Can you walk us through the steps you take to do this and send us a screenshot too so that we can have a visual as well?

     

    If you could clarify your iOS version, I'd appreciate it.

     

    Thanks!

  • nyanta's avatar
    nyanta
    Explorer | Level 3
    2 years ago

    ■Reproduction procedure
    1) Prepare Hidemaru Editor ( 秀丸エディタ https://hide.maruo.co.jp/software/hidemaru.html ) installed on windows 11. Input the following three lines of text into Hidemaru Editor.


    2. enter the following (3 lines) of text into the Hidemaru Editor


    あああ
    8~s^db/]
    あああ


    3. Save this text with character encoding Shift_JIS.

    4. Upload this text to Dropbox.


    5. ~(TLIDE) displayed as ‾(OVERLINE) in Dropbox app on iOS (version 16.7.1)

     

    The ~(TLIDE) being changed to ‾(OVERLINE) may be caused by a text file that contains Japanese characters in character encoding Shift_JIS.

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    2 years ago

    Thanks for the additional information and the screenshots too nyanta 

     

    Could you also clarify the Dropbox mobile app's version installed on your iOS device and let us know if this happens with other files as well?

  • nyanta's avatar
    nyanta
    Explorer | Level 3
    2 years ago

    The iOS Dropbox version is 348.3.
    Under the condition of a text file (character encoding: Shift_JIS) containing Japanese and ~(TLIDE), the same phenomenon occurs with other files.

     

    However, ~(TLIDE) is not modified for text files in Shift_JIS encoding format that contain only English characters and symbols and do not contain Japanese characters.
    The problem occurs when the text file is in Shift_JIS encoding format and contains Japanese characters and ~(TLIDE) at the same time.

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    2 years ago

    Hey nyanta, thanks for the additional info.

     

    Since there's a new version of the app out, can you please update it, to see if it helps?

  • nyanta's avatar
    nyanta
    Explorer | Level 3
    2 years ago

    For iOS16.71 (iPhone8) in Japan, it has not yet been reflected in the AppStore and the latest version of Dropbox is 348.3. We will let you know the results when we are able to update the next version in Japan.

  • nyanta's avatar
    nyanta
    Explorer | Level 3
    2 years ago

    iOS16.71(iPhone8)
    The same issue occurs with the latest version of Dropbox, 350.3.

  • zacw's avatar
    zacw
    Icon for Dropbox Engineer rankDropbox Engineer
    2 years ago

    I believe this is authoritatively correct depending on how you are inserting the tilde. For example, given this file:

    これはテストです。 これらはいくつかのランダムな文章です。
    ~ <- tilde

    With this hex representation:

    ┌────────┬─────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────┬────────┬────────┐
    │00000000│ 82 b1 82 ea 82 cd 83 65 ┊ 83 58 83 67 82 c5 82 b7 │×××××××e┊×X×g××××│
    │00000010│ 81 42 20 82 b1 82 ea 82 ┊ e7 82 cd 82 a2 82 ad 82 │×B ×××××┊××××××××│
    │00000020│ c2 82 a9 82 cc 83 89 83 ┊ 93 83 5f 83 80 82 c8 95 │××××××××┊××_×××××│
    │00000030│ b6 8f cd 82 c5 82 b7 81 ┊ 42 0a 7e 20 3c 2d 20 74 │××××××××┊B_~ <- t│
    │00000040│ 69 6c 64 65 0a ┊ │ilde_ ┊ │
    └────────┴─────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────┴────────┴────────┘

    Running this through iconv produces:

    > iconv -f shift-jis -t utf-8 file.txt
    これはテストです。 これらはいくつかのランダムな文章です。
    ‾ <- tilde

    However, given a UTF-8 encoded version (note this has an actual ~ in it, not the output above):

    ┌────────┬─────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────┬────────┬────────┐
    │00000000│ e3 81 93 e3 82 8c e3 81 ┊ af e3 83 86 e3 82 b9 e3 │××××××××┊××××××××│
    │00000010│ 83 88 e3 81 a7 e3 81 99 ┊ e3 80 82 20 e3 81 93 e3 │××××××××┊××× ××××│
    │00000020│ 82 8c e3 82 89 e3 81 af ┊ e3 81 84 e3 81 8f e3 81 │××××××××┊××××××××│
    │00000030│ a4 e3 81 8b e3 81 ae e3 ┊ 83 a9 e3 83 b3 e3 83 80 │××××××××┊××××××××│
    │00000040│ e3 83 a0 e3 81 aa e6 96 ┊ 87 e7 ab a0 e3 81 a7 e3 │××××××××┊××××××××│
    │00000050│ 81 99 e3 80 82 0a 7e 20 ┊ 3c 2d 20 74 69 6c 64 65 │×××××_~ ┊<- tilde│
    │00000060│ 0a ┊ │_ ┊ │
    └────────┴─────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────┴────────┴────────┘

    This produces an error when trying to convert:

    > iconv -f utf-8 -t shift-jis test-utf8.txt
    ����̓e�X�g�ł��B �����͂����‚��̃����_���ȕ��͂ł��B
    iconv: test-utf8.txt:2:0: cannot convert

    According to this StackOverflow post, it seems like there is not a canonical tilde representation of the ~ character in Shift_JIS, so the app is doing its best to try and preserve as much of your content as possible, even if it can't be encoded. This is also my experience when using other macOS tools that can interpret Shift_JIS, though some will preserve the invalid character I'm not sure that's always the desired behavior.

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