Database

[Anders Engwall]

Fredrik Ekman, about getting Scandinavian characters into the index:
 
> Well, perhaps it was stupid of me to suggest Latin-1. There is absolutely 
> no realistic way to use it for plain-text files over the 'net. The only 
> way is to UUencode it. This could work, but it also means that all 
> indexers will have to know a lot about what they are doing. They must 
> know enough about Latin-1 to tell if that is what they are using (or else 
> a way of converting it) and also be able to UUencode. But I really don't 
> see another way to have Swedish, Danish and other non-English titles in 
> the database. Perhaps every language could use their own 7-bit standard, 
> but that would be messy for anyone interested in some other country's 
> titles...

Is it really worth this effort just to be able to see those neat, dotted
characters? I don't think so.

As it is now, those three letters have been replaced by a, a and o res-
pectivally; it's pure 7-bit. This might of course occasionally lead to am-
biguous titles, but OTOH it is simple and -- more important -- it always
works.

It is probable that a more complicated technical solution might deter the
folks who do the actual indexing. Simplicity is a virtue here.

Anders Engwall				Email: Anders.Engwall at eua.ericsson.se
ELLEMTEL Utvecklings AB			Voice: +46 8 727 3893
[lvsj|, Sweden				Fax: +46 8 727 42 20
endremin saxassa flumen flobollala / feilobasch falljada follidi / flumbasch