ISO Latin 1 text presentation with 7-bit ASCII

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5 total messages Started by Markus Kuhn Thu, 19 Nov 1992 18:14

#295

Author: Markus Kuhn
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 18:14

50 lines
2837 bytes

I want to include a feature in several public domain systems where the
character set ISO 8859-1 is used for textes and identifiers (e.g. gopher).
People with old 7-bit-ASCII-only terminals have some problems reading 
textes with Latin 1 G1 characters, so it would be nice to be able to convert
these characters to similar ASCII characters. This is always an emergency
solution, but still much better than just stripping off bit 8 or displaying
a question mark.

Supposed there is no problem if the converted text is a few characters longer
than the original one. At the moment, I use the following table:


/* Conversion table for displaying the G1 set (0xa0-0xff) of
   ISO Latin 1 (ISO 8859-1) with 7-bit ASCII characters.
   Suggestions for improvement are welcome!

   Markus Kuhn <mskuhn@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>     */

static char *iso2asc[96] = {
  " ","!","c","?","?","Y","|","?","\"","(c)","a","<<","?","-","(R)"," ",
  "?","+/-","2","3","'","mu","P",".",",","1","o",">>","1/4","1/2","3/4","?",
  "A","A","A","A","Ae","A","AE","C","E","E","E","E","I","I","I","I",
  "D","N","O","O","O","O","Oe","x","O","U","U","U","Ue","Y","P","ss",
  "a","a","a","a","ae","a","ae","c","e","e","e","e","i","i","i","i",
  "d","n","o","o","o","o","oe",":","o","u","u","u","ue","y","p","y"
};

or in a more readable format:

       !   c   ?   ?   Y   |   ?   " (c)   a  <<   ?   - (R)    
   ? +/-   2   3   '  mu   P   .   ,   1   o  >> 1/4 1/2 3/4   ?
   A   A   A   A  Ae   A  AE   C   E   E   E   E   I   I   I   I
   D   N   O   O   O   O  Oe   x   O   U   U   U  Ue   Y   P  ss
   a   a   a   a  ae   a  ae   c   e   e   e   e   i   i   i   i
   d   n   o   o   o   o  oe   :   o   u   u   u  ue   y   p   y

Could you experts please have a quick look at this table and tell me,
whether it is also acceptable outside Germany or if any improvements
are possible? I don't know much about the replacement characters used
by people in other languages if they are forced to use ASCII. E.g.
what about the characters ETH and THOR (d,D,p,P is just my guess)?

Are there even any national standards?

Markus

-- 
Markus Kuhn, Computer Science student -=-=- University of Erlangen, Germany
Internet: mskuhn@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de  |  X.500 entry available
--- Wer, wie, was? Wieso, weshalb, warum? Wer nichts fragt bleibt dumm. ---

Re: ISO Latin 1 text presentation with 7-bit ASCII

#296

Author: Paul Eggert
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 20:08

26 lines
1743 bytes

mskuhn@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Markus Kuhn) writes:

>       !   c   ?   ?   Y   |   ?   " (c)   a  <<   ?   - (R)    
>   ? +/-   2   3   '  mu   P   .   ,   1   o  >> 1/4 1/2 3/4   ?
>   A   A   A   A  Ae   A  AE   C   E   E   E   E   I   I   I   I
>   D   N   O   O   O   O  Oe   x   O   U   U   U  Ue   Y   P  ss
>   a   a   a   a  ae   a  ae   c   e   e   e   e   i   i   i   i
>   d   n   o   o   o   o  oe   :   o   u   u   u  ue   y   p   y

>Could you experts please have a quick look at this table and tell me,
>whether it is also acceptable outside Germany or if any improvements
>are possible?

This area is controversial, but you might look at K. Simonsen,
``Character Mnemonics & Character Sets'', Internet RFC 1345 (June
1992).  It's not a standard, but it suggests mnemonics for a large
variety of character sets, including ISO Latin 1.  Here are the
two-character mnemonics that it suggests for the upper half of Latin 1,
in a similar format to that quoted above.

 NS !I Ct Pd Cu Ye BB SE ': Co -a << NO -- Rg 'm
 DG +- 2S 3S '' My PI .M ', 1S -o >> 14 12 34 ?I
 A! A' A> A? A: AA AE C, E! E' E> E: I! I' I> I:
 D- N? O! O' O> O? O: *X O/ U! U' U> U: Y' TH ss
 a! a' a> a? a: aa ae c, e! e' e> e: i! i' i> i:
 d- n? o! o' o> o? o: -: o/ u! u' u> u: y' th y:

Re: ISO Latin 1 text presentation with 7-bit ASCII

#297

Author: Jeroen Hellingman
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 10:02

9 lines
741 bytes

I would suggest th, TH, dh, DH for eth, Eth, thorn, Thorn, resp.

Jeroen

-- 
Jeroen Hellingman                 E-mail: <jhelling@cs.ruu.nl>
't Zand 2                         Phone: +31-3473-73935 (home)
4133 TB Vianen                    (18.00--21.00 GMT)
The Netherlands                   Answer in English, German, or Dutch.

Re: ISO Latin 1 text presentation with 7-bit ASCII

#299

Author: Keld J|rn Simonsen
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 18:33

8 lines
676 bytes

jhelling@cs.ruu.nl (Jeroen Hellingman) writes:

>I would suggest th, TH, dh, DH for eth, Eth, thorn, Thorn, resp.

Oh? Eth is normally considered a 'd' and Thorn a 'th'.
Did you mix up things? :-)

keld

Re: ISO Latin 1 text presentation with 7-bit ASCII

#300

Author: Heimir Thor Sverrisson
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 12:02

18 lines
1145 bytes

keld@login.dkuug.dk (Keld J|rn Simonsen) writes:

>jhelling@cs.ruu.nl (Jeroen Hellingman) writes:

>>I would suggest th, TH, dh, DH for eth, Eth, thorn, Thorn, resp.

>Oh? Eth is normally considered a 'd' and Thorn a 'th'.
>Did you mix up things? :-)

Yes, please just use 'd' for 'eth' and 'th' for thorn.  I'm used to
write my middle name as 'Thor' not 'Tor' and never 'Por'!!
The meaning of icelandic text can normally be figured out even though
eth's are replaced by d's, so there is no need to add an extra 'h'.
-- 
Heimir Thor Sverrisson		|		heimir@plusplus.is
Plusplus Inc.			|
Laugavegi 13			|		Tel: +354-1-620 250
108 Reykjavik, ICELAND		|		Fax: +354-1-622 819

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