🚀 go-pugleaf

In <8496@charon.cwi.nl> dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter) writes:

>In article <1i2durINN2pj@rodan.UU.NET> avg@rodan.UU.NET (Vadim Antonov) writes:
[I don't know who wrote the following paragraph.]
> > >Moreover, one question: how would you encode the German A-umlaut such that
> > >it sorts properly (i.e. as if it is the letter combination AE)?

You can't. There are several sorting orders in use in Germany.

> > The sorting order should be strict -- if you have two identical words
> > with a-umlaut and ae in the middle is it the same word? If it is then
> > ae IS a variation of a-umlaut and should always be treated as a signle
> > letter.

That depends. The "Duden" (_the_ German Dictionary) considers them to
be distinct.

>I do not think you understand.  From the AVON (Amtliches Verzeichnis der
>Ortnetzkennzahlen) edition 1985, which gives area codes for the places in
>Germany.  The next is a selection of places mentioned ("o is o-umlaut):
>	Modautal
>	M"ockm"uhl
>	...
>	M"ornsheim
>	Moers
>	M"ossingen
>	...
>	M"otzingen
>	Mogendorf
>now come up with a coding that allows this (standard German) sorting.

This is _not_ standard German sorting, it's standard German PTT
sorting (and quite confusing at times).

The Duden treats umlauts as the corresponding vowel with respect to
sorting order (i.e. "o sorts the same as o etc.)

A side note: the German alphabet as teached in elementary school
consists of the letters a-z followed by the umlauts "a, "o, and "u;
the double-s isn't contained in that set. (That's what I remember,
anyway.)

>Note that it is not allowed to spell Moers as M"ors, that is a severe
>spelling error!  On the other hand in the absense of umlauts it is
>allowable to spell "o as oe (because it is in fact a shorthand for it),
>but to do so when there are umlauts available does not look very good.

And is in fact a spelling error. Writing oe instead of "o is only
allowed in the absence of real umlauts in the character set.

-- 
				Christoph Badura  ---  bad@flatlin.ka.sub.org

Personally, I don't care whether someone is cool enough to quote Doug
Gwyn--I only care whether Doug Gwyn is cool enough to quote. -- Larry Wall